Paradigm Shift
by Lady Papillon Rose
Summary: Caring for an injured Kish following his run-in with the Blue Knight awakens Pie's dormant emotions and forces him into the struggle between loyalty, duty, friendship, and something he doesn't want to call love. Yet. Pie/Kish, other pairings inside.
1. Author's Notes

**Author's Notes:** I sorta hate jarring everyone with these at the beginning of every chapter, so I'm just going to drop them, the disclaimer, and the warnings here once and for all. If you don't care, onward!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Hell, I don't even own the computer I wrote this on. I guess I own whatever minor characters that might show up for a bit, but if you want to use the lady at the gas station in chapter 5 I reaallly don't mind.

**Pairings:** The main pairing is **Pie/Kish**, with secondary IchigoxMasaya, TartXPudding, ambiguous Mint/Zakuro and RyouxLettuce (well, it starts off ambiguous); and one-sided KishxIchigo. There's lots of platonic/friendship pairings, too - I'm not going to list all of those, because those aren't the pairings that will get me killed.

**Formatting: ** The document manager hates anything other than that epic looking grey bar, and I hate that grey bar, so scene changes are denoted with a '-oOo-'. And yes, English spelling of names. I first read the manga, so unfortunately Quiche will always be Kish to me. My bad. The first two chapters are in Pie's POV only; afterwards it switches from from Pie, Kish, and a general 3rd person view of the other characters.

**Warnings: **Eventual lime, and language. Not too much profanity, but seeing as the characters themselves let out a fair amount of 'damnit's and kuso's (Tart needs his mouth washed out with soap) there will be some. Also, I'm not sure whether I manage to keep everyone in-character. With the changes Pie will definitely behave in a manner that seems OOC but makes sense given the situation - but I want to keep him as IC as possible, even with that changes taking place. If I fail too hard at it, let me know.

**Notes:** The chapter titles are based on the life cycle of plants, minorly altered in order to give me a few more titles to work with. The story surrounds the emotional development of Pie and the effect it has on everyone else, so I wanted to go with the whole 'growth' motif. I apologize if that's annoying somehow.

I'm basing this mainly on the anime, with a few tidbits of the manga thrown in (namely the 'midget' argument between Ichigo and Tart. Meaning there'll be episodes referenced - the first two chapters directly reference episodes 37-39 before breaking away from canon for good, although I will reference 40 and possibly a few more in passing. I didn't want to dwell on those too long, as I imagine that if you're reading this you're already familiar with the series and the anime episodes, so when I do reference them I sorta skim over the events of the episode. I don't really stick to the actual script, though. *sheepish*

I also reference other series - it's not a direct crossover by any means, but I do make allusions to other magical girl teams based in other areas. Because it's fun!

Does this count as AU? I'm not sure. I do take liberties with how the Deep Blue issue gets resolved.

And yes, it is Pie/Kish; it seems that both characters leave Earth with scars (Kish doesn't even get as much as a goodbye, and Pie leaves having been betrayed by the guy he was loyal to the entire time - hell, Tart's the only one that leaves unscathed.) I wanted to work it out so that everyone gets a happy ending...maybe? Plus, there is the discrepancy between episodes 38 and 39 - 38 leaves off with Kish apparently having a wound that could kill him and Deep Blue telling them to leave him be, but somehow he manages to get better by the time episode 40 rolls around. He had to get that treated somehow, right? : )

Sorry if the pairings offend anyone - it's more shonen-ai than actual yaoi, although there'll be slight lime later on. Please don't leave me any flames for it; don't like the pairing, or hate Masaya so much your eyeballs are going to boil out of your head? Please go read something you'll actually enjoy. :D

Thanks for reading, criticism and commentary is welcome! I want to get better at this writing business!


	2. Embryo

In the streets of the Odaiba shopping district, late Christmas shoppers of all ages strolled casually, with the occasional panicked parent dashing down the sidewalk in the direction of the closest open toy store, literally foaming at the mouth.

Red-cheeked couples walked side-by-side, hand-in-hand, shielded from the chilly air by their mutual affection; bright-eyed children held their parents' hands, urging them on towards the large, gaily decorated Christmas tree on display. It was a scene to warm the heart, and ease the frazzled mind weary of the various chores that precede actually celebrating the holidays.

That was twenty minutes before Pie and his allies showed up, blew up a couple of road signs, and generally began wreaking havoc. Naturally, the air of Christmas cheer had rather quickly shifted to fear (and confusion, for the few residents of the city that hadn't already realized that hostile supernatural forces, alien invasions, and destruction caused by mutated reptiles were some of the inescapable perks of living in Tokyo).

Far beneath them, human filth scattered like ants, screaming and stumbling over each other. Tart's childish laughter rang out above the discord in the streets. "Run! Run like the insects you are!" he crowed; ordinarily Kish might've joined in, but his attention was focused on the impending arrival of the object of his creepily obsessive affections. Pie made a note to run a clandestine psychological evaluation on both of his teammates at some point. Kish seemed to be sinking into some kind of Ichigo-driven melancholy, and Tart appeared to be teetering on the edge of psychosis. It didn't surprise Pie that he was the sole sane individual among them.

Although he shared in his young comrade's glee (albeit on a much more subdued level), Pie remained impassive as usual, focused on the task at hand. Their presence and the minor havoc they wreaked had a purpose - they were laying a trap with themselves as the bait.

It was time for step two of their plan; it took the form of a red-faced, clearly furious teenage girl sporting a pair of cat ears and a tail. From the scowl on her face, Pie suspected that only moments before Ichigo had been one of those sickeningly happy people on their way to view the tree that evening. "You guys couldn't wait one night, could you?"

Kish shrugged, visibly having brightened at her appearance, despite the fact that she was glaring daggers at him (as usual). "We work hard, unlike you slackers. What's the matter, did we interrupt a DATE or something?"

That was a poor choice of words. Ichigo's complexion darkened to that of her natural hair color, and the stream of colorful language that issued forth from her lips was not ladylike in the slightest. Pie shook his head at expression of idiotic joy that plastered itself across Kish's face. Maybe he was a closet masochist, or something. With a few more taunts, Ichigo's emotional outburst awakened the large deposit of Mew Aqua dormant within the tree. With a flash of brilliant blue light the orb rose to hover over the Christmas tree, shining brighter than any of the artificial lights draped around it.

"Tar Tar! What are you doing to Ichigo-oneesama?" Pudding's trademark high-pitched squeal signaled the entrance of the rest of the Mew Mews, as well as the conclusion of step two of their plan. Everything was moving along steadily, the trap had been set, and it looked as if things were going to go their way for once.

As usual.

The most annoying thing about plans, Pie was rapidly learning throughout their mostly unsuccessful career, was that it didn't matter how well-prepared one was, how much research and design went into the setup, and how swimmingly the rest of the scheme fell into place - one single factor could send everything spiraling to hell.

It was easy enough to trick the girls into encasing the Mew Aqua in one of Pudding's rings, and it was equally easy to trap them within the swirling winds of a localized twister via a well-placed Fuu Rai Sen once they realized their mistake and moved to destroy the ring before the Mew Aqua trapped inside overloaded and blew the place to hell.

Then factor that Pie had not made allowances for made his appearance out of nowhere, deflecting the bolt of energy meant to render the five annoyances incapable of preventing the impending destruction with a single swipe of his overly elaborate sword. Disappointment was no stranger to Pie, but when it came as the result of a trench-coated pretty boy wielding a sword while phantom winds tousled his blond locks, it was a little harder to accept.

"Shit," Tart muttered behind him, and he had to concur. The interference of the Blue Knight was something that he hadn't considered, in spite of their past run-ins with the as-of-yet unidentified individual. He appeared so erratically that he'd simply forgotten to note Ichigo's blond savior as a recurrent threat to watch out for. Still, the girls would be occupied with the Mew Aqua atop the tree, leaving Pie and his comrades free to engage the Blue Knight. Even if they weren't able to reap the results of the explosion, they could still hope to overpower him and remove the interloper from the equation altogether.

At least they would have, had Kish's temper not gotten the better of him at that point. "Damn you!" he snarled, hackles visibly raised, and launched himself at the Blue Knight with a cry of rage.

'He should learn to control himself,' Pie sighed inwardly, bracing himself to join his teammate. Kish had the best reflexes of them all; while he and Tart's strengths lay elsewhere, Kish was the fastest and most limber of the three. That didn't mean that facing the Blue Knight head on was the wisest decision he could've made - although Pie was certain that the head his teammate was thinking with wasn't the one that involved the use of his brain. Brandishing his sai, Kish lunged at the scowling Blue Knight, swinging with reckless abandon. 'He should be more careful, too. It's dangerous, leaving oneself open like that.'

The words quickly proved prophetic. Seemingly unphased by Kish's assault, the Blue Knight merely sidestepped his attack, thrusting his blade between one of Kish's sai and tossing it aside carelessly. Kish fumbled with his remaining sai, leaving his abdomen unwisely exposed - just long enough for the Blue Knight to whip his sword across Kish's stomach. It was rare that Pie allowed himself to lose his composure, but both he and Tart gasped, watching in horror as the Blue Knight's sword connected with Kish's body, a spray of blood following in it's wake. The other sai fell from his grip, clattering against the ground uselessly as it's master collapsed in a disturbingly still heap on the roof. The Blue Knight showed no recognition of what had just transpired, stoic as ever, but the majority of the Mew Mews looked horrified, at least.

Pie and Tart wasted no time in teleporting to their fallen comrade's side. Pie immediately pressed his fingers against Kish's neck, seeking a pulse, but Tart's temper was little better than Kish's. "You!" he snarled, his body tensed to launch himself at the Blue Knight as well - an admirable, but foolish gesture. Pie wasn't about to let another of his friends fall victim, especially not the youngest.

"Don't go," he commanded, hoisting Kish in his arms. It was strange how light he was; then again, he hadn't been eating much since the onset of his depression. "It's almost at it's critical point. You'd be hurt too."

Tart reluctantly lowered his weapon, although he continued to glare at the Blue Knight's back. "Fine."

"Come on." They winked out of existence with Kish in tow, retreating to their ship and leaving the Mew Mews to their devices. Pie could only hope their attempts to halt the explosion ended in failure, although he silently mourned the loss of such a large amount of Mew Aqua.

-oOo-

"He's going to be okay, right?" Tart piped up; it was a change from the steady stream of insults and death threats he'd been muttering since leaving Earth. Upon entering the ship, Pie had wasted no time in carrying Kish's limp form to the chamber reserved for speaking with Deep Blue.

As were most of their rooms, the chamber was more of a large subspace pocket with a nonsensical natural decor that hurt one's eyes if stared at for a lengthy period of time. The landscape was a hazy green mess that spread out across the horizon, with ancient-looking columns floating at random, possibly relics dragged from Deep Blue's memories. It was not the dimension in which his dormant spirit dwelt; the place merely served as a connection between themselves and the consciousness of the yet slumbering god they awaited the revival of.

Pie gingerly laid Kish on one of the sole strips of solid ground, where he stubbornly persisted in both not moving and barely breathing. Tart, in all his childish innocence (that which remained) leaned down to grab his friend's shoulder, shaking him lightly. "Hey, Kish? Wake up!"

"Careful." Peeling back Kish's now-blood soaked shirt to get a better look at the wound, Pie felt a twinge of uneasiness that felt foreign to him; he was not one to fret over things, no matter how troubling they were. The slash across Kish's sternum was deep; he could only hope the Blue Knight's sword hadn't hit one of his vital organs. His face had taken on an unhealthy pallor several shades lighter than his natural complexion, more than likely due to blood loss. Pie's shirt was now sullied as well, he noted, pushing his slight revulsion away to deal with later. The slow rising of Kish's chest indicated that he wasn't dead yet, but that wouldn't be the case for long unless they healed him.

It was the reason Pie had brought him to Deep Blue's chamber rather than merely cart him off to the infirmary to take care of the wound himself - he had a feeling that Kish's survival could be assured more through the use of a very small amount of the Mew Aqua they'd already stockpiled rather than relying on his own ability. Pie had some basic medical training, but he considered himself a scientist, not a doctor.

"Pie?" Tart spoke up again, and this time his voice wavered. Pie glanced up at him from where he knelt beside Kish. His earlier irritation had given way to something that very closely resembled fear. "He's going to be okay...right?"

He couldn't bring himself to lie to Tart; he never could. "It's a pretty deep wound," Pie responded, avoiding Tart's gaze. "We need to treat him soon or he could die."

Tart's crestfallen look reminded Pie that things that weren't physical could still hurt.

"That won't be necessary."

At once, familiar blue glow darkened the sky. The pillars faded, replaced by the ethereal blue light, and before them, a shadowed figure appeared, a pair of striking blue eyes it's only distinguishing feature. Normally the sight was reassuring to Pie, the brilliance of their deity calming, but today it struck him as somewhat cold. He automatically dropped to one knee, kneeling respectfully. He expected Tart to follow suit; however, in his agitation Tart remained standing. Deciding to chide him for the display later, Pie began to entreat his god for permission to use some of the small amount of Mew Aqua they'd managed to ferret away.

Deep Blue didn't give him the chance. "I no longer have a use for him," he said. His voice was clear, falling upon Pie's ears like fresh water - until he comprehended the words.

Tart's mouth fell open. "What?"

"He's in critical condition, Deep Blue-sama." Pie explained, a stone beginning to sink into the pit of his stomach. It was one more thing he hadn't anticipated - it was getting aggravating.

Deep Blue sighed, laboriously. "Some of the Mew Aqua released from your skirmish earlier managed to reach me in my dimension. I feel stronger than ever." He let out a groan of exertion; the blue eyes narrowed. "I leave my awakening in your hands. His weakness is but a hindrance to me."

Tart had had enough. "No! We're just supposed to let him die?" He yelled; assuming the same stance he'd faced the Blue Knight with. "He's annoying sometimes, and he has really bad taste in girls, but that's going too far!"

"Tart!" Pie snapped, unable to ignore Tart's insolence any longer. He, too, was worried for the survival of the still boy before them, but Deep Blue was the ultimate authority, ranking far above their mortal lives. "Don't defy Deep Blue-sama!"

Deep Blue's ignored Tart's outburst. "My awakening shall take priority over all else."

"No!" Tart snapped again, turning his anger on Pie then. "He's our friend!" His eye misted over as he spoke, to Pie's surprise - the Tart he'd grown to know over the years would never indulge in something as insipid as tears. "We can't just..."

"Leave us."

"What?"

"I will speak with Deep Blue alone," Pie said coldly. Tart knew better than to argue with that tone of voice. He shot Pie a miserable glance before teleporting away. Pie could've sworn he heard him sniffling.

With Tart gone, Pie resumed his position, lowering his head piously. "With all due respect, Deep Blue-sama, his moment of weakness should not reflect on his worth as a member of this team. He wishes your successful revival, as we all do."

The shadowed figure of Deep Blue snorted derisively. "He is worthless, ruled by his emotions and devotion to the leader of those who oppose us. Of what use is his presence to me?"

Pie fell silent, his nails digging into his palms. "He..."

People died, all the time. Tart didn't have parents. Many children on their miserable planet didn't. Many parents no longer had children. Pie was no stranger to death, and he was prepared to cause it on Earth in order to save his people. He couldn't say that the thought of losing either Kish or Tart had never occurred to him. Within their hands lay the fate of their people, such a monumental responsibility that it required the utmost dedication. Kish may have allowed himself to be distracted, as had Tart, to some extent, but Pie remained steadfast. It took a lot of effort, suppressing the emotions that led others astray, but if he didn't stay focused, who would?

Kish was a hindrance, more often than not. If he wasn't a part of the team, there was no reason for him to continue sapping their resources and interrupting their plans. He could let him pass away, quietly; in the end it might be a kinder way to go. Pie didn't care. He couldn't. He could let go of his (friend's?) hand, couldn't he?

He couldn't. Pie had retired the word friend, the day he realized the gravity of their mission. But that didn't mean that the word meant nothing to him.

"He's our comrade," he said quietly, the words sounding foreign on his lips, and he shuddered at the thought of defying Deep Blue's death sentence. "We need him. He...provides emotional support necessary to our continued productivity."

"Is that so?" The blue eyes narrowed into slits. "He is that important to YOU, of all people?"

Pie trained his eyes on the ground, feeling sick for the first time in a long while. Deep Blue regarded him thoughtfully for a moment before relenting, not without a resentful sigh. "Very well. You may revive him; you are to use the barest minimum of my Mew Aqua. But do not bring him before me again."

Deep Blue withdrew without giving Pie the chance to express his gratitude. The blue glow faded with as much abruptness as it's arrival, leaving Pie alone in the swirling green void. Perspiration had begun to collect on Kish's pale brow. His breaths came more quickly now, almost in sharp jerks, and Pie knew they had little time before they stopped altogether.

-oOo-

As expected, Tart was sulking in his room, sitting on his bed with his knees tucked beneath his chin. He barely raised his head when Pie entered the room, toting the fading Kish. "So what are we going to do?" he asked in an accusatory tone, refusing to make eye contact with Pie.

Pie was in no mood for Tart's attitude, but the more pressing issue in his arms took precedence over scolding him. "Deep Blue has rejected his service, but he's allowing us to save him." Tart flinched a bit at the lack of emotion in Pie's voice. He was used to it, but it was a little unnerving how calm he could be in such a situation. "We can stabilize him with some Mew Aqua, but we'll have to stitch the wound up ourselves so it can heal."

Tart blanched. "We?"

"I'll take care of that," Pie assured him. "I need your assistance with other things."

Tart heaved an inward sigh of relief, rising to follow Pie to the infirmary. Once there, though, he found himself hanging back, watching Pie set Kish on the examination table.

Tart wasn't fond of the infirmary. It was home to things that were unpleasantly sharp, things that stung when placed on wounds, things that smelled horrible, medicine that tasted awful. It was a generally unpleasant place. Fortunately, the infirmary didn't get much traffic save for whenever one of them got ill, and was rarely used for injuries sustained in battle. Battling with energy channeling weapons was a great deal cleaner than actual combat, and most of their battles with the Mew Mews were relatively bloodless.

"Go get some water and a couple of washcloths," Pie directed; Tart darted off to locate the desired items. In the meanwhile Pie carefully removed Kish's ruined shirt. "Yeah, that's not coming out," he muttered, setting the cloth aside.

"Got it!" Tart chimed, returning with a bucket of water and a few clean washcloths, which were then used to clean the area around the wound, Tart looking more and more squeamish by the moment. Pie decided to finish the rest of the job himself, not wishing to deal with the aftermath should Tart lose control of his nausea.

"Tart." Pie gestured to a variety of herbs laid out on the counter behind him. "Crush those and use some warm water to make a paste."

"Okay." Tart looked relieved, and applied himself to the task quietly. They worked like that for a few minutes, both partially lost in their own thoughts. Once Pie was finished, he retrieved the pearl-sized bead of Mew Aqua he'd allotted for the task, and not a moment too soon - Kish had begun to sweat profusely, his breathing growing more labored. A rare expression of long-buried tenderness crossed Pie's face, and he unconsciously reached over to pat Kish's hand reassuringly. The tiny globe of Mew Aqua began to glow in his palm, and without further hesitation he placed the globe on Kish's chest and placed his hand against it.

It wasn't the first time he'd handled Mew Aqua, but it proved to be the strangest. The bead of energy expanded beneath his palm, blue light spreading along his fingers and across Kish's chest. Kish's heart rate picked up, his body stiffening; Pie's fingers tingled. It wasn't unpleasant, not in the slightest - he smiled unconsciously, a feeling of...relief? Happiness? He couldn't assign a name to it, but it caused the breath to hitch in his throat.

Kish let out a deep sigh, and his eyes crept open.

"Kish! You're awake!" Tart cried, dropping the mortar he was using to grind the herbs and rushing to his side. Kish didn't respond; his eyes were trained on the ceiling, gazing emptily at something no one else could see. "Ichi..." he muttered, shuddering.

Tart groaned. "Oh, come on, why are you thinking about that stupid girl now?" he snapped. Pie didn't respond; something very odd was happening to him. He couldn't raise the hand pressed against Kish's chest. The tingling sensation in his fingers was nearly unbearable.

"Ichigo?" Kish said then, very clearly; he stared directly at Pie, a hazy, dreamy look in his eyes. He smiled, placidly. To Pie, it felt as if something were cutting into his chest. "Ichigo...I..."

Pie opened his mouth to say "She's not here," or possibly something a little harsher, but the words would not come. The physical contact, the Mew Aqua alighting the nerves in his hand to fever pitch, and the look in Kish's eyes were overwhelming. No one had ever looked at him like that, and although it wasn't for him...it felt wonderful. Reaching out with a shaking hand, Kish grasped his wrist weakly.

"Love you," he breathed, and with a final sigh his head lolled back against the examination table. The blue glow faded, his heartrate returning to normal.

"Kish?" Tart cried out in alarm. Pie's voice was subdued. "He's just sleeping," he said faintly, holding his hand up to eye-level.

"Whew." Tart shook his head disapprovingly. "That is sad. I hope I never become that stupid over someone. Right Pie? Pie?"

Pie stood still, as if frozen, staring at his wrist. Tart leaned over and poked him in the side. "Hey!"

The action startled him, causing him to jump. The significance of his reaction was not lost on Tart, who eyed him suspiciously. Years of sneaking up on Pie and shrieking in his ear for laughs had never actually garnered any results. Pie shook his head lightly to clear it, snapping back into action without addressing the issue.

"Are you alright?" Tart asked, raising an eyebrow.

"...yes." Pie said shortly. Then, a little more steadily, "He'll live, but we still have to treat the wound."

"Okay."

His usefulness ended at creating the paste used to dress Kish's wound, so Tart sat back and watched Pie work. Kish slept through it all with a peaceful expression on his face; from his wound being doused in acrid smelling antiseptic, to Pie whipping out surgical thread and a needle and proceeding to (here Tart had to look away a few times, despite his insistence that he was NOT squeamish, only girls were squeamish) stitch the wound closed. The whole process took about an hour, including the slathering on of the herbal mixture, followed by Tart assisting with bandaging Kish's sternum. At one point he even smiled in his sleep.

"I wonder what he's dreaming about," Tart remarked.

"That girl." Pie sounded surprisingly bitter, although Tart couldn't fault him for it; he wasn't too fond of Ichigo Momomiya at the moment either.

"Is he okay now?"

Pie sighed. "He should be. I don't know when he'll wake up, though - or whether he's suffered any lasting damage."

"Besides his brain," Tart said cheekily, yawning. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid like that again."

"Hmph." Pie folded his arms across his chest. He considered reminding Tart that Kish wouldn't be helping them much anymore anyway, not unless Deep Blue relented, but he figured that could wait until Kish awakened. "You should go get some sleep. We'll check on him in the morning."

"Oh...okay." Tart turned to leave on foot, pausing to look back at Pie. "Pie?"

"Yes?"

"We would've saved him, even if Deep Blue said not to, right?"

"I don't know," Pie said simply, and he didn't. A look of disappointment darkened his face, but Tart nodded and withdrew without protest. Watching the child trudge off to his room, Pie hoped his dreams were better than the day had gone. That left him alone with his unconscious teammate. Pie didn't feel like leaving him alone just yet.

The tingling in his fingers had receded, but the solid lump that had formed in his chest had not. In fact, it had spread to include a twisting sensation in his stomach whenever his thoughts strayed in a certain direction. Pie's hands drifted down to press against his abdomen. It was rather new to him, how much the thought of losing his teammate - no, friend, whatever he told himself Kish was his FRIEND - bothered him. They were there on a mission, brimming with the possibilities of casualties among their ranks - but it was more than that. They were friends, bickering and disagreements aside, and when they weren't stressed out both Kish and Tart were enjoyable to be around - in small quantities. They were too loud, and had simply too much energy between the two of them. But it was a disturbance Pie had grown used to over the years that he'd known them. Tart held a special place in his heart, more like a younger brother than anything else. Kish was different. He wasn't sure what Kish meant to him, but whatever it was, clearly he didn't want to lose it.

That brought him back to the incident earlier, when he'd been mistaken for Ichigo. His stomach knotted up once more. The look in Kish's eyes had stunned him; it was an intimate gesture not meant for him, but for that redhead Kish was enamored of. And yet...Pie raised his hand, inspecting his wrist once more. There were no marks, no scratches, nothing - but those cold fingers had burned their way into his flesh somehow. Even then, he felt the phantom grip of a hand clutching his wrist, reaching for it's...

"No." Pie said aloud, surprising himself. The word sliced through the silence of the room. He didn't know why he'd said it, nor why the incident refused to let go of it's hold on his mind. Those eyes, not troubled, the way they usually were when he spoke of or dealt with the girl in question. Gentle and loving. Loving. Soft, slender fingertips, ringing his-

"No," he found himself saying once more, this time with more emphasis. He was merely tired, that was all. It had been a long day. Lifting Kish once more, Pie teleported to Kish's disheveled room. Neither he nor Tart paid attention to Pie's constant admonition that organization and competence went hand in hand.

"I don't know why we put up with you," Pie said, tucking his friend into his bed. He lingered for a moment. Kish had a nice smile, and it felt good to see him at peace. Exhaustion set in, and Pie decided to rest a moment before returning to his own room. A few minutes of poking around later turned up an extra blanket, and Pie seated himself in a corner, ruminating over the failures (and successes) of the day. Soon, he, too, had fallen asleep.


	3. The Seed

Pie woke up cold, stiff, and with an uncomfortable crick in his neck. It took him a moment of blearily surveying the unfamiliar world around him before he realized that he'd fallen asleep in Kish's room, on the floor.

"Foolish," he muttered, sitting up while massaging his sore neck. The howling void in his stomach vied for his attention as well, reminding him that neither he nor Tart (to his knowledge) had eaten since the day before. It also reminded him of the more pressing matter at hand.

Kish wasn't awake, not yet, but his chest still rose and fell regularly, his face frozen into the same peaceful expression he'd fallen asleep with. Pie pressed a hand against his forehead, checking for a presence of a fever. The Mew Aqua might've sealed the worst part of his wound, but it was still subject to infection. The pale flesh beneath his palm was warm, but not dangerously so. His hand lingered there, brushing the dark green hair back. It was soft, and Pie found himself running his fingers through it, idly...

The fact that he didn't know what he was doing, nor why he was doing it hit him with such intensity that he drew back in alarm, almost losing his balance in the process. The twisting sensation shot through his stomach again, intensified by his hunger pangs, and Pie winced. He shook his head, forcibly ignoring the flimsy thoughts weaving in and out of his mind, never long enough to be truly disturbing (soft hands, fingertips, some unknown emotion softening his eyes and relaxing his features) and headed off for their makeshift kitchen. Perhaps it was merely hunger causing him to behave so strangely. Or stress. Whatever it was, Pie didn't like it one bit.

-oOo-

Tart was already in the kitchen when Pie arrived. He was chowing down on something Pie dimly recognized as a particularly sugary brand of cereal right out of a box printed with a blonde-tressed girl clad in a sailor suit, wielding a wand that would not have been out of place in the hands of one of the Mew Mews themselves. Pie cast a disapproving look at both his charge's selection and method of eating it, opting for something healthier.

"You're going to gain weight, eating stuff like that," he said flatly, rifling through a basket of apples. Having exhausted a large amount of their own supplies on the journey to Earth, over a year ago, they'd found themselves needing to replenish their stock with fruit, vegetables, and grains found growing naturally within some of the least polluted areas of the planet. Later on, to Pie's initial disapproval, Kish and Tart had 'acquired' a supply of human food they found palatable. Eventually Pie yielded, appropriating some favorites of his own, including a few that were startlingly similar to food grown at home.

Tart ignored him, pointedly sticking his hand back in the box and grabbing another handful of cereal. "I'm not a girl," he responded in mocking tone. "I don't have to worry about things like that."

Pie resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Kish made it through the night, so I guess he's going to be fine."

"Really?" Tart exclaimed through a mouthful of cereal. "Is he awake yet?"

"No, but he isn't running a fever." Pie bit into his apple, inwardly reveling in how sweet it was compared to the stunted, bitter fruit that was the norm on their home planet. "He should wake up sometime today."

Tart swallowed, breakfast forgotten in his excitement. "Shouldn't we try to wake him up?"

"He's going to need as much rest as possible. Let him wake up on his own. Besides, I imagine that once he wakes up, he'll immediately regret the decision." Pie retrieved another apple, turning to leave. "I'm going to get some work done."

Tart knew what that meant - Pie was withdrawing into the lab and probably didn't want company. Which was fine by him; the lab was interesting, but there were far too many wonderfully tempting things that he wasn't allowed to touch or tamper with. "Okay. Maybe I'll go-"

"You will not," Pie interrupted him, firmly. "They will receive their comeuppance in due time."

Tart grinned. "You're planning something, aren't you?"

"That I am."

-oOo-

The second his feet touched the clean floor within his lab, Pie instantly felt far more relaxed than he had for the past two days. The door slid shut behind him, and he breathed in deeply; the clinical, slightly chemical smell was at least familiar. Tanks full of the parasitic creatures used to create Chimera animals stood in the middle of the room, and upon his entrance a crowd of them bobbed up to the surface to stare at him accusingly (as much as they could). They hadn't been fed as a result of the previous day's tumult, and they weren't happy about it.

As the resident scientist (a title he held with something akin to pride) Pie made the most use of the lab onboard their ship. Kish and Tart employed the use of his parasites, but it was Pie that altered them and cared for them. It was also there that he monitored the deterioration of the environment and created the various weapons and devices used in their attempts to collect Mew Aqua and clear the Earth of the human parasites that had taken hold of it.

Pie fed the parasites, which swarmed over each other absorbing the nutrients he scattered into the tank. They watched him with their small black eyes, awaiting their chance to become something greater than they were.

He'd remembered to leave a few parasites floating around the scene to monitor the results of the battle at the Christmas tree the day before. It was this footage that he consulted next; hoping that Deep Blue's announcement that some of the Mew Aqua had reached him even in his dimension following its detonation meant that the Mew Mews had not been successful. As usual, he was disappointed by the reality of the situation. Somehow the girls had managed to lessen the range and destructive power of the explosion.

"How annoying," Pie grumbled. The waste of such a large amount of Mew Aqua was troubling.

He made a note of how many parasites were left in the area, as well as a few observations about the Mew Mews to be filed away for future reference. The footage of the redhead, Ichigo, returning to her human form and fretting beside a limp boy presumably injured in the explosion was of a particular importance. He had yet to collect information on the identities and locations on all of the girls, Zakuro in particular, but any information the parasites could get a hold of for him was useful.

Pie worked diligently for the next few hours, recording the data collected from the battle, making estimates regarding the energy released by the stunted explosion, and pinpointing additional locations to release parasites to detect the presence of Mew Aqua. While he worked, his mind began to wander, as it sometimes did. Usually he thought about home, and those he'd left behind. Rarely did he devote mental energy to what he considered frivolous things. However, his thoughts seemingly had a mind of their own that day.

While he consulted a map of Tokyo Bay, the image of a pair of gentle golden eyes gazing lovingly at him flitted throughout his head like a wayward butterfly. The troublesome notion danced along his wrist and fingertips, fingertips that had been in contact with soft, lovely dark green hair only hours before.

This went on for a good hour before Pie became exasperated, unable to concentrate anymore. His hands strayed to his stomach, which was no longer growling. He wasn't hungry anymore. Perhaps he was stressed somehow, but he didn't feel stressed out in the least. If anything, he felt rather lightheaded. He placed his palm against his own forehead, and then followed it up with actually scanning his own body temperature, wondering if he was coming down with a cold. They did get sick from time to time, usually due to minor respiratory issues (a cold, in human terms) that cleared up on its own with a few days of rest. The results yielded nothing out of the ordinary.

A shriek of pain rang out from somewhere within the ship, followed by a stream of profanity. Kish was awake.

-oOo-

Kish was awake, indeed, and clearly in a considerable amount of discomfort. When Pie entered the room, the bizarre sight of Tart struggling to hold the irate, squirming Kish in place with some of his vines almost made him turn around and walk right back out. It was just...wrong, somehow.

"Let go, damnit!" Kish howled, clenching his fists and trying to yank his wrists free. Tart appeared to be straddling the line between irritation and dismay. "You can't get up yet, you idiot!"

"The hell I can't! I've got to go find the Blue Knight and kick his ass!"

"How are you supposed to kick someone's ass when you can't even stand up, stupid?"

"He's right, you know." Pie spoke up, startling his agitated teammates. Kish took the chance to wrench free of Tart's grip, moving to sit up - and letting out another harsh gasp as the pain lanced across his abdomen.

"Told you," Tart said sullenly.

"You sustained a very deep wound stretching nearly the width of your sternum," Pie said calmly; Kish glared up at him, running his hands over the bandages gently.

"Yeah, the Blue Knight almost cut you in half," Tart added cheekily. "I was going to kill him to avenge you but Pie wouldn't let me."

"That's because he would've squashed a pipsqueak like you like a bug," Kish snapped. Tart's face reddened.

"At least I'm not the one stupid enough to let my guard down in a fight!" he retorted.

"Shut up." Pie's icy expression halted the argument in its tracks. "It wasn't quite that bad. It was still very deep, though. Any closer and you might've died."

Kish let that sink in, sighing. "What happened to the Mew Aqua?"

"The Mew Mews managed to decrease the magnitude of the explosion and collected the Mew Aqua it yielded."

"Great." Kish prodded his ribs lightly; even the slightest touch made his entire stomach throb. Pie felt a surge of pity for him.

"You should stay in bed for awhile. You'll break your stitches if you move around too much," he said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Stitches?" Kish looked confused. "Did you use Mew Aqua on it?"

Pie hesitated. "Yes...but it wasn't enough to heal it completely. We still had to sew the wound shut."

"Oh. Um...thank you." Kish stared up at the ceiling dejectedly. "So how am I supposed to get around without accidentally opening another hole in my stomach?"

"You should be able to sit up in a day or two. We can assist you until then," The note of uncertainty in Pie's voice caught Kish's attention, and, true to form, a mischievous grin spread across his pained face.

"With everything?" he asked innocently, placing emphasis on the word. Pie and Tart looked at each other. The thought had occurred to them, as well.

"I've got quite a bit of work to do, so I expect Tart will have to assist you in SOME areas," Pie said hurriedly. Tart's mouth dropped open. "That's not fair!" he cried.

"...I have seniority."

Tart glanced over at Kish uneasily. "I think I hate you."

For the first time that day, Kish laughed.

-oOo-

The next couple of days passed rather uneventfully; mostly dedicated to their recovery (of Kish's health, and Tart and Pie's sanity.)

For the most part, Kish wasn't really a bad patient. From time to time he did go out of his way to irritate his caretakers, although the only one he was able to get a rise out of was Tart. Pie simply excused himself from the situation whenever Kish got on his nerves. This, to Pie s surprise, wasn't very often.

As he was currently confined to the ship, Tart made an excellent makeshift nursemaid, partially out of boredom, and partially out of unspoken relief that Kish was still with them. He made sure to provide Kish with all the unhealthy, sugary human food he could ever want, as well as spending time with him when he was feeling sociable (and not moping over Ichigo, which he did a fair amount of). At one point they held a very heated discussion about what they'd like to do to the Blue Knight, as well as a revenge brainstorming session that Pie happened to be privy to. It consisted mostly of 'dirty' words and physically impossible acts of vengeance that made little to no sense.

At one point during the conversation, Pie caught himself smiling. Broadly. He immediately stopped and left the room abruptly.

He then spent the next ten minutes lingering in the hallway outside Kish's room and feeling something that might've been loneliness.

Pie didn't understand what was happening to him, and it seemed he was powerless to stop it.

What made it most unpleasant was not the fact that his moods and self-control appeared to be out of whack; it was that, try as he might, he couldn't figure out why such a thing should be taking place. The self-imposed numbness he deemed necessary to the success of their mission was fading on its own, leaving a jumble of sensations and emotions that he'd long fallen out of touch with. Things that had no place in him now. They made him feel weak, somehow. He saw how they affected his teammates, especially Kish - rendering him incapable of doing what he needed to do. Pie had no doubt that if Kish could turn his cunning and ruthlessness on the Mew Mews without his soft spot for Ichigo getting in the way, they wouldn't stand a chance.

It was why he didn't let such things affect him. He tried to see Tart and Kish as teammates alone, so that if it ever came to it, he could make the right decision - the mission, over them. He didn't see the Mew Mews, or any humans, as anything other than hindrances in the survival of his people, although that wasn't a stretch, really; human arrogance and ignorance spoke for itself. But as for his friends...he'd always held a quiet, brotherly fondness for Tart, who clung to him as if they actually were related by blood instead of experience and responsibility. And he and Kish were...

Pie didn't know anymore.

He lingered in the hallway for ten minutes, willing himself to return to his lab and actually do something work-related.

Then he punched the wall in frustration and went back inside.

-oOo-

"Thank you."

"What?" Pie looked up from where he sat glancing over a couple of liberated field guides detailing the animal and plant life of various regions. Not only was it important to document the flora and fauna that still thrived on Earth for their own purposes once the planet was liberated, but knowing which species dwelt where and how they operated provided a leg up when deciding the best way to go about attacking the Mew Mews and furthering their reclamation plans. His current target for the latter was the Tokyo Bay, as well as a particular species of fish that populated the bay in large quantities.

Kish appeared to be in one of his contemplative moods. Three days after his accident he was finally able to sit up and leave his bed for short distances (albeit with a fairly large amount of pain), but instead of taking advantage of his limited newfound freedom he still spent a great deal of his time in his room, uncommonly quiet.

"For the stitches." Kish hovered near a skylight, gazing at the velvet expanse of space outside their ship. It was the first time since his accident that he'd gritted his teeth against the ache in his stomach and took to the air. Despite the discomfort he stayed there, watching the stars. "Tart didn't do them himself, did he?"

"He helped."

"But you did most of the work, right?" Pie's lack of a response was typical, but this time Kish found it infuriating. "Hey, I'm expressing gratitude! Say something!"

He teleported beside Pie, unable to stop a small gasp of exertion from escaping his lips. Pie looked up then, raising an eyebrow. "You shouldn't move around so much."

"I know, I know," Kish said weakly, dropping into the chair next to Pie. "Being stuck here is pretty boring, though."

Pie snorted. "Because it isn't as if it took us the better part of a year to get here in the first place, during which we were all confined to the ship with neither orders nor any other forms of entertainment."

"Don't remind me." Kish leaned back, falling silent for a moment. It didn't last. Straightening up, he leaned over to look at Pie's field guide. "What's that?"

"A guide to the wildlife in Tokyo Bay." Pie responded, shortly, hoping his nervousness wasn't too apparent. Holding idle conversations had never been one of his strong points.

"Are you doing something with the Tokyo Bay?" Kish leaned further, his hair brushing against Pie's arm. Pie stiffened, clutching his guide a little more tightly. The twisting in his stomach was back with a vengeance, and Kish's lack of regard for personal space wasn't helping.

"Y-yes." The second the word left his mouth, haltingly, Pie felt a twinge of revulsion. He never stammered. Kish noticed it too, gingerly sitting up fully so he could peer into Pie's carefully guarded face.

"Are you okay?" Pie avoided his gaze, willing himself not to look at Kish as if his life depended on it. And it did, because he wanted to; those golden eyes called to him, knowing he couldn't resist them forever. All he could muster was a nod. He didn't trust his voice to not betray him.

Kish stared at him for a moment, a flash of recognition brightening his face. "Oh, I get it. You're completely out of your element here, aren't you?"

Pie turned away, trying to refocus on his guide. This quickly became impossible due to the sudden pressure of Kish leaning against him, grinning. "Hey, Pie, I'm invading your personal space again," he teased.

'Ignore him.' Pie bit his lip, staring intently at the entry for sea bass. Sea bass. It didn't matter that Kish was right THERE, pressed up against his shoulder. It didn't matter at all, nor did the warmth radiating from Kish's flesh, or the soft, dark green hair crumpled against his skin. Pie swallowed, the faint stirrings of nausea rising in the back of his throat.

Kish reached up, poking him in the ear. Pie grimaced. "Do you have to?"

"Yes," Kish said, smirking, "Because you hate it so much. What's wrong? Physical contact with others is supposed to be fun!"

Sea bass. Sea bass, swimming in the cold heart of the Tokyo B-

Pie bit back the yelp of surprise; Kish was twisting his braid around his finger, leaning in even closer. "You're never gonna get a girlfriend like this, you know," he whispered seductively, his breath unbearably hot against Pie's ear.

Shit.

Pie couldn't take it anymore and teleported out of the room altogether, leaving behind a stack of forgotten guides and a thoroughly amused Kish, sprawled out in his chair laughing uproariously.

-oOo-

The cold water felt good against his face, although it did nothing to ease the burning of his inflamed cheeks. Pie hadn't blushed since he was much younger and lot more innocent, long before the realities of life set in. He felt guilty for doing so, as if he were betraying himself.

The damage was done, too, because he now understood what was happening to him. He felt foolish for not pinpointing the signs before, unwanted thoughts and the rapid-paced pounding of his heart clouding his reason and making it hard to breathe. Staring at himself in the mirror above the basin, Pie forced his hands down to his sides, struggling to control his breathing. He inhaled slowly, holding it for a moment and then exhaling. He did it again, a few more times, and noticed with a sense of relief that the flush was fading from his face, his heart rate halting its frenzy.

Once he was completely calm, his face frozen into its usual stoic expression, Pie sighed deeply. "It's just a passing infatuation. Bound to happen when one is stuck on a ship with the same people for months on end and thrust into a new environment with only two familiar faces. It's nothing. It's NOTHING."

Kish, of all people. He really was falling down on the job.

-oOo-

"The time of my awakening draws near."

Beside him, Tart shifted uncomfortably. Pie couldn't fault him for it. Deep Blue's presence was no longer calming; it radiated hostility towards them. Kish was not present; he hadn't been informed of the audience, or of Deep Blue's rejection. Pie hadn't seen him that day, and it was just as well, as he wasn't sure he could face him yet.

"The destruction of the parasitic race that has taken hold of this planet, and its consequent reclamation is at hand," he continued; the underside of his voice was lined with criticism and disapproval. "If you continue to fail me, I will have no choice but to doubt your loyalty and abilities."

Tart audibly swallowed, lifting his head slightly before speaking. "Even if you say that," he began haltingly, "no matter what we do we're always interrupted by the Mew-"

Deep Blue interrupted him, curtly. "I don't have the time to listen to your excuses."

Tart lowered his head again dejectedly and fell silent. Pie glanced at him, sympathetic.

"I have devised a plan to deal with the threat the Mew Mews pose," he offered. "Surely this time, they will fall, and we will be free to proceed with our operations."

"You've made that claim before," Deep Blue said, coldly. "What reason do I have to believe that you will be successful this time?"

"We appreciate your continued faith in us. We will not disappoint you," Pie said firmly.

"See that you don't." On that note of finality, Deep Blue's consciousness withdrew, the chamber returning to its harsh green landscape. Tart stood up, stretching. "Well, that wasn't fun."

"No, it wasn't," Pie admitted. Following the incident in Odaiba, Deep Blue seemed to have lost faith in their ability to carry out his orders, and the fact that they were no longer seen as capable hit both Pie and Tart rather hard. They'd been chosen for the mission as paragons of skill among their people, and every time Pie was forced to report back with no news of further progress it felt as if he'd failed somehow. They had to awaken Deep Blue before he lost patience, or all was lost - and that was unfathomable.

"So you have a plan?" Tart trailed behind him, gliding through the air effortlessly as Pie made his way to the lab on foot.

"Yes. I've been developing a new kind of Chimera animal. A particularly powerful one."

His latest pet project, still naught but a mass of cells beginning to form a cohesive shape, floated within a pink, gel-like substance in an incubation chamber. Tart pressed his hands against it, making a face. "Is this it?"

"Careful with that." Pie checked the small monitor attached to the chamber, across which the animal's vitals scrolled. "It's incomplete."

"Heh." Tart poked at the glass. "It looks normal, though."

"This one has a special ability. It holds the power to manipulate dreams."

"Dreams?" Tart looked skeptical. "What's so special about that?"

"The dreams of human beings can be accessed as alternate dimensions," Pie explained patiently. "This Chimera can enter that dimension and manipulate what happens in the world within."

Realization began to dawn on Tart's face. He grinned wickedly. "Interesting."

"I believe the dream world of Ichigo Momomiya would make a good graveyard," Pie's voice hung heavy with malevolence. Tart cackled in glee.

"It's the perfect revenge for what they did to Kish, too."

"Yes."

-oOo-

Kish returned from wherever he'd been later that night, offering neither excuse nor explanation for his absence. His face was pale and drawn, fixed in a pained expression. He didn't look good at all.

Pie was sitting in his room once again, having convinced himself that he was merely dropping by to inform him of their plans and discuss how he could possibly work his way back into Deep Blue's good graces. Being unnaturally worried about his absence had nothing to do with it - at least that was what he told himself, repeating the lie like a mantra as the hours slipped by. The disquiet grew, forming a solid, dense lump in his chest that didn't hurt, exactly - it merely let its presence be known, nudging him relentlessly until the words on the page he was reading were rendered unintelligible. Still, he sat there, forcing himself to stare at them, unwilling to break the sense of normality. The moment he let go of it, Pie knew he would fall right back down into the puddle he was trying to wade out of.

The moment Kish reappeared, dropping into his bed while breathing heavily, a sense of mixed relief and frustration washed over him and at that moment Pie knew drowning was inevitable.

"Where have you been?" he asked, feigning a casualness that failed to take the edge out of his tone.

"Does it matter?" Kish muttered into his pillow, his voice muffled. "Tart's the one with the curfew, not me."

"That's not the point." Pie folded his arms over his chest. He knew good and damn well where Kish had been; it was one of the only other places he casually visited anymore. "You went to Earth, didn't you? To see her."

Kish rolled over on his side, facing away from him. "Why do you care?"

"You're going to reopen your wounds if you keep running around before you're fully healed. Besides, she's the reason you got injured in the first place," Pie said, exasperated.

"Shut up and leave me alone." Kish snapped, sounding bitter, although he surprisingly made no attempt to deny Pie's claim.

It was familiar behavior, the source of which Pie and Tart had dealt with on numerous occasions. Tart's response to Kish's moping was to fly into a childish rage. Ever since she'd insulted his height Tart felt a special loathing for Ichigo that did not extend to the rest of the Mew Mews. His reaction was probably healthier than Pie's; he generally simply ignored him whenever he got like this. At least Tart's response occasionally triggered a similar response in Kish. Pie supposed his lack of acknowledgement implied that he didn't care one way or the other what Kish did, but that was most certainly not the case, steadily increasing devotion aside. Instead of leaving him to his own devices this time, Pie felt compelled to try to reason with Kish, however disastrous that venture would prove to be.

He had no idea how to go about doing that.

Doling out relationship advice fell into that category of things he had never attempted and had no practical experience with, such as holding idle conversations, and erroneously developing a crush on a male teammate that already happened to be infatuated with someone else. The wiser version of himself would've been content to merely inform Kish that he was behaving in an extremely foolish manner that was putting their mission in jeopardy. Simple and to the point, but harsh. He doubted Kish would respond well to that, nor did he think himself capable of being that crude at the moment.

Cursing his lack of experience in social situations, Pie hesitantly reached out to place an almost imperceptibly trembling hand on Kish's shoulder, where it rested awkwardly. Hell, the entire situation was awkward, and Pie was glad Kish wasn't looking directly at him. Physical contact was good. It fostered a sense of camaraderie. There was a logical reason for it, aside from how nice it felt. "Kish-"

"Don't." Kish's voice had a note of warning in it that completely shot Pie's strategy to hell. He raised his head, fixing Pie with his scornful gaze. "I know what you're going to say, so don't even bother saying it.

Pie persevered. "She's not worth this."

"How do you that she isn't?" Kish grunted, shaking Pie's hand off. "You don't know anything about her."

"I know she's killing you." A veritable storm of emotions were battling for dominance in Pie's head, anger and resentment and pity and sorrow, for what his friend was becoming. And what might've been the slightest hint of jealousy, a new emotion that Pie didn't appreciate at all. "And you're letting her. You're completely losing sight of why we're here in the first place."

"That doesn't change the fact that I love her." Kish no longer sounded angry; his body, tensed up before, seemed to deflate. "More than I've ever loved anyone else."

"Why?" Pie felt like grabbing him and shaking some sense into him, but he doubted it would do any good. "She's never kind to you. She thrashes you as mercilessly as she does any of us. Given the chance, she would destroy you in order to protect this planet and its people. Being obsessed with her is just going to get you killed."

Kish fell silent, letting that sink in for a moment before chuckling. It was a harsh, ugly sound, far from the carefree, joyous laughter Pie had made his exit to the day before. "I know," he said despondently, flopping over on his back and staring at the ceiling. His eyes were empty. "She says she hates me. But it doesn't matter. I still love her."

"Why?" Pie repeated, a little more forcefully. It was his talent for keeping his composure alone that kept him from seizing Kish by the shoulders and shaking him until he woke up.

"She has a beautiful heart," Kish said wistfully. "Even though it belongs to someone else...but the more you suffer, the more it shows you really care, right?"

Pie didn't know how to respond. Kish's words both made perfect and little sense, all at the same time. He and Tart had been under the impression that Kish was merely delusional, but he wasn't. Not completely, at any rate. He knew what he was doing, and he knew what was happening; he'd merely lost control of the situation.

It hurt.

"No," Pie said, softly, deciding to leave Kish be for the moment. His words were having no effect, and he had thinking of his own to do. "Suffering over someone is just foolish. You'll wind up killing yourself without reason."

Kish smiled. "I guess I'm just a fool, then." He rolled back over on his side, wincing at the pain the movement caused.

Pie left before he could say something he might regret.

-oOo-

They didn't speak much over the next few days. Pie was preoccupied with his plan to get himself and Tart back within Deep Blue's good graces; thankfully so, because it gave him a reason to give Kish as wide of a berth as possible.

He'd hoped the separation would work in his favor as well, but the decreased contact did nothing to erase or lessen the rush of emotion he felt whenever he dwelled on the thought of his teammate. Fortunately he had too much on his mind to let it wander, but when it did...

Kish didn't disappear the way he had earlier that week. He moped around for the most part, occasionally returning to form to taunt Tart or make some off-color comment, but he was falling back into the hole he couldn't seem to drag himself out of.

It was one more reason Pie worked so diligently: if his plan was successful, not only would it restore Deep Blue's faith in their abilities, but it would free Kish as well. He was an important member of the team, after all. The team.

The day before the last day of the year, the fully grown Chimera animal took its first steps. Pie and Tart spent the rest of the day fleshing out their plan to take down Ichigo and the rest of the Mew Mews. Pie willfully neglected to inform Kish of the strike that would take place the next day. It was for the best.

-oOo-

With only one Mew Mew to deal with and Kish's temper out of the way, Pie's plan worked like a charm.

They snagged Ichigo outside a small shrine, having just finished up with the same young man she'd been witnessed crying over on Christmas Eve, using Tart as the bait to lure her to an isolated area. It was fortunate for them, Pie mused, that the Mew Mews didn't appear to think of Tart as posing much of a threat due to his age, although the speed with which he seized Ichigo with his vines dismissed that notion.

Pie's Chimera animal resembled an anthropomorphic anteater with a slender body, clad in a white leotard and bearing a pair of lavender wreaths. Ichigo's protests died out quickly; she drifted off to sleep watching the Chimera animal dance with the wreaths solemnly. As soon as she closed her eyes, the animal wasted no time copying her form and setting off to set the trap for the other girls, a handful of lavender blossoms in tow.

"Why lavender?" Tart asked while they monitored the animal's progress. "Is it special somehow?"

"It's a widely held belief among humans that the lavender plant aids sleep," Pie said informatively. "Especially when placed inside the pillow the individual rests on. It was the inspiration behind her most powerful attack."

"Oh. Does it actually help?"

"There are human studies that claim that it does." Within the sphere that provided the false Ichigo's view of the world, the other Mew Mews feasted within the back room of their cafe, unaware that the redheaded girl smiling and eating beside them would be their demise. Within the span of half an hour, Pie's Chimera animal had managed to pull all four of the Mew Mews into the dimension formed by Ichigo's dreams, leaving the girls lying sprawled in a field of lavender blossoms.

"Finally," Pie muttered, giving way to one of his rare, genuine smiles. Tart darted forward to address the stunned, confused girls, who hadn't even had time to transform.

"Are you surprised?" he leered. "That Chimera animal has the ability to manipulate dreams AND take the form of the dreamer."

Fully awake now, Mint, Zakuro, Lettuce and Pudding gaped at him; the expressions of dismay on their faces were entertaining, to say the least. "We trapped you in Ichigo's dream so you can't escape, and unless she wakes up...well, she won't, so it doesn't matter. Chimera animal, GO!"

The Chimera animal sprang into action, summoning a giant pillow stuffed with lavender and sending it flying at the girls, who barely managed to dodge the attack. Mint, recovering first, gritted her teeth, crouching on her hands and knees among the flowers. "Even in a dream world, we're not going down that easily."

"Yup!" Pudding added, leaping to her feet and reaching for her brooch.

"That's not going to save them," Pie remarked casually to Tart. Transforming did provide the Mew Mews with the extra speed needed to dodge the barrage of pillows being chucked at them, but it wasn't until Mint drew back her bow and let fly with an arrow that they realized the dire situation they were in: the Chimera animal could reflect their attacks.

"Didn't I tell you?" Tart addressed them once more, grinning broadly. "She controls everything that happens within this dream. You're powerless here."

Pie spoke up then, a hint of smugness in his voice that only surfaced when victory was in sight. "Once we kill Ichigo, you will disappear along with her dreams."

"That's right," Tart said in a childish, sing-song voice. "But it would be rude to not pay you back for what you did to Kish, wouldn't it?"

They had the satisfaction of seeing all four Mew Mews looking horrified, the gravity of the situation settling in. The Chimera animal redoubled its efforts, and with no other course of action the girls simply took to dodging any way they knew how. This went on for awhile, Tart's laughter ringing out above them.

Pie stood back, feeling both a twinge of pride...and hope. With the eradication of the Mew Mews and their troublesome leader, not only would Deep Blue's faith in he and his teammates be restored, but the reclamation of the once beautiful Earth seemed within reach. "That's enough, Tart," he ordered. Tart obediently drew back from the sphere, within which could be seen four tired, battered and bruised girls lying prone among the purple blossoms. "It's time for them to all disappear."

Waves of energy leapt in electric purple arcs along the length of his fan as Pie drew back, readying the final attack that would put an end to Ichigo's life and restore theirs.

So focused was he that when Kish materialized before him, knocking the fan away and cutting his attack short only seconds later, all Pie could do was gape, a mixture of shock and disbelief trapping his words in his throat.

"What the hell is he doing?" Tart hissed, equally stunned; he and Pie watched, as they had only days before, as Pie's plans went to hell once again.

"...idiot," was the only word Pie could muster. Kish had clearly broken some of his stitches. Blood oozed from somewhere beneath his shirt, and he was as pale as he'd been the day he sustained his injuries. Somehow, that didn't stop him from floating over to where Ichigo was suspended in mid-air, resting within the clutches of Tart's vines, and shaking her violently. "Wake up! Look at me!" he snarled, a feral expression neither Pie nor Tart had ever seen contorting his features. "Look at me, Ichigo!"

Ichigo's eyes began to open; she awoke with a start, confused. "Kish?"

Tart's vines retracted, sending the girl tumbling towards the city below - her quick reflexes allowed her to transform before she could become a spot on the pavement. The other Mew Mews had already escaped the dimension they were trapped in the second Ichigo awakened, and were currently battering the Chimera animal with their own attacks. With Ichigo's help, they made short work of the creature, who let out a final shriek as it dissipated into shimmering motes of dust.

Tart sighed, glancing up at Pie. "He woke her up."

"Yes."

"He's an idiot."

"...yes."

Landing safely on the roof of a nearby building, Ichigo turned to greet her teammates, who were equally overjoyed to see her alive and well. Their reunion was cut short by Kish also landing clumsily on the roof, struggling to stand before the object of his affections with his twin sai drawn.

"I'm only going to tell you this once, Ichigo," he said, eyes alight with something that might have been rage or passion - Pie couldn't tell the difference when it came to him. "Either you become mine, or you'll die."

Ichigo glared at him, the stress of the past few hours finally setting in. "Stop talking nonsense!" she nearly screamed. Kish lunged for her, his movements slow and clumsy; Ichigo easily sidestepped the attack. Kish lost his grip on his weapons, falling forward against her, and Ichigo reluctantly caught him, surprised that he'd gone down so easily - and finally noticing the blood coating his shirt and the bit of his stomach that was visible.

"You...Ichigo...why won't you listen?" Kish muttered, more to himself than anyone else, before passing out once again, toppling over onto the roof. Ichigo stood over him, horrified and unsure of what to do.

Pie and Tart made their entrance then, looking grim. "How could he feel so strongly about a stupid human?" Tart wondered aloud; the bravado in his voice somewhat failing to cover his disappointment.

Ichigo tensed up at their presence, pointing her finger accusingly at them. "How dare you try to use my dream to hurt my friends!" she snapped. Pie's smirk only enraged her further. "What's so funny?"

"You're all such selfish creatures," Pie said mirthlessly, his smirk fading. "Humans truly are a blight upon this world."

Ichigo looked taken aback. "What?"

"You're not the only one who's suffered," Tart chimed in. "You hurt Kish too."

Pie clenched his fist with resolve, moving forward to stand beside the unconscious Kish. Ichigo leapt backwards, unsure as to whether he intended to attack again. Pie's voice was cold; Ichigo wasn't the only one among the Mew Mews who felt a slight chill at the hatred emanating from him. "We have to hurry to eradicate the human race from this planet as soon as possible. It isn't worthy."

He and Tart knelt down beside Kish, turning his body over to get a better look at his injuries. As Pie suspected, it was nothing more than a few burst stitches, although given the depth of the wound it had still bled pretty heavily. Tart turned then, solemnly. "We have friends on our planet," he informed them, looking wistful.

Ichigo noted that he neglected to say 'family', filing it away for later.

"Excuse us," Pie said, icily; he and Tart lifted Kish and vanished, leaving the five girls on the roof with more than a few doubts as to whether they were truly doing the right thing.

-oOo-

This time there were no formalities - Pie and Tart merely carted him off to the infirmary, where Pie applied a local anesthetic and went to work fixing the damage Kish had caused.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Tart asked, wistfully; Pie's lack of a response confirmed it. Once finished, Tart helped him bandage the area once more, depositing Kish into his bed and settling down to wait for him to wake up. They didn't speak; there was no need for it. Kish had screwed things up for them in a very big way, and no sooner than he awakened later that night Pie and Tart let him have it.

"You IDIOT!" Tart yelled, yanking the pillow from beneath Kish's head and hitting him with it.

"What the hell was that for?" Kish snapped, doubling over in pain.

"What do you think it was for, stupid? We almost had them and you messed everything up by waking that dumb Ichigo up!"

Kish cringed at the faint memory. "Oh, yeah, I guess I did."

"'Oh, yeah?' We spent days working on that plan without any help from you, and that's all you have to say? 'Oh yeah?'" Tart seized the pillow and decked him with it again.

"Stop that," Kish hissed dangerously, but Tart was too far gone in the throes of his tantrum to hear him.

"Shut up! She always messes everything up, and you let her, because you're STUPID, and she's STUPID, and...and..."

"You're really wearing that word out," Kish said snidely. Tart's faced reddened.

"You don't care about anything but her anymore, and I HATE you!" he shrieked, darting off down the hallway to his room to sulk.

Kish reached down to retrieve his pillow where it had fallen. He glanced over at Pie, who leaned against the wall of his room, arms folded over his chest.

"Aren't you going to yell at me too?" Kish sighed.

Pie ignored him. The entire day weighed heavily on his mind, and he felt more conflicted than ever before. He didn't dwell on the audience with Deep Blue that would have to take place, nor the verbal tongue lashing that he knew he and Tart would receive. Even worse was knowing that it was Kish that had betrayed them. Pie had never wanted to hit his friend as much as he did then...nor himself, because in spite of it all, he could still use the word 'friend'. He didn't hate Kish, nor was he as angry as he should've been; in fact, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief that his injuries hadn't been as bad as he'd thought upon first catching sight of him.

He could remember the moment Kish knocked his fan away, his shock melting into concern as he noticed the fresh blood coating his pale flesh; it wasn't anger that he'd felt, then, but a dim flash of panic.

Pie was disgusted with himself. He should've been enraged, the way Tart was; he knew he should've followed through with Deep Blue's original sentence. Kish was nothing but a hindrance in their plans; his feelings for Ichigo were dangerous, to himself, his teammates, and their entire mission.

The anger wouldn't come.

"That was irresponsible," he finally said, continuing to stare at a point on the ground. "You just put our entire mission in jeopardy over a passing infatuation with a human girl."

To his surprise, instead of a sarcastic retort, Kish hung his head. "Why didn't you tell me about the attack?"

"It was better for you not to know. You see what comes of moving around too much."

"You wanted to kill her without me knowing about it."

Pie let out a heavy sigh; suddenly he felt very, very tired. "Yes. Because your feelings for that girl are causing us nothing but trouble."

"Why can't you understand that I love her?" There was a note of desperation in Kish's voice; Pie ignored the pang in his chest it caused. "I can't do anything about it. I don't want to kill her. I want to take her with me. But that doesn't mean I've given up on the mission."

"Yes, it does," Pie allowed himself to look at Kish then, the anger he hadn't been able to feel before flaring up. "You're placing your emotions before anything else. That's why Deep Blue rejected you - because you've lost sight of what's important!"

"...what?"

Pie groaned, realizing what he'd said. He still hadn't told Kish; he'd intended to help him get back in Deep Blue's good graces before it became an issue, but Kish's stunt that day had ruined any chances of that. "We were going to tell you after you healed fully."

"What do you mean, rejected?" Kish sat up fully, ignoring the pain in his abdomen. "Because that bastard almost killed me?"

"You lost control and attacked HIM," Pie reminded him. "Deep Blue has lost faith in your ability to serve him. We were forced to plead to convince him to part with the small amount of Mew Aqua needed to heal you the first time."

Kish fell silent as Pie's words sunk in. "He wanted you to let me die."

"It's not too late," Pie continued. "You can still reaffirm your loyalty to him."

"No." Kish rose from his bed, hovering before Pie. The golden eyes that Pie couldn't get out his head were now hard, as was his tone. "Any god that sentences one of his faithful followers to death for sustaining an injury is not a god I choose to follow."

The slap came then. It had been coming for awhile, and Pie had managed to hold it back. He couldn't hold it back any longer.

In the silence that followed, Pie realized that it was the first time he'd struck one of his friends.

The hurt, utterly lost expression on Kish's face pained him, but Pie couldn't bring himself to apologize, nor could he continue berating him. They stayed like that, Kish hovering listlessly and Pie staring at the ground once more.

"You don't understand." Kish said finally, retreating to his bed, where he turned to stare at the wall. "You don't know what it feels like, to struggle with duty and your love for someone. Because you don't even HAVE a heart."

Kish glanced over his shoulder, an ugly, mocking smirk playing on his lips. "You sit in your lab with your all your equipment, talking about the blight of humanity and typing up reports all day long, cowering at Deep Blue's feet, because you've never loved anyone, and duty is all you know. You wouldn't know what it's like to be torn, would you?"

Kish wasn't expecting to see the expression of sorrow that crossed Pie's face then. He wasn't used to seeing any expression on Pie's face. Realizing that he might've actually hurt Pie's feelings (something he'd previously believed impossible) Kish instantly regretted his words. "Pie?"

Pie vanished before he could get the word out, cutting him off. Kish stared at the spot where he'd stood, fingers absently tracing the newly tightened stitches beneath his shirt.

"...damnit."

-oOo-

Pie sat on the floor in his darkened lab with his back against the tank containing the parasites. He could feel the slight vibration caused by the tiny creatures swimming blithely; they'd been fed earlier, and they paid him no mind.

Words scrolled across the blank faces of displays, readings from the ship and other processes taking place in the lab, including the data from another project he was working on. Pie ignored it all, staring up at the ceiling. There was moisture on his face, a foreign sensation, but he made no attempts to wipe it away. The corners of his eyes burned.

Pie hadn't cried since he was a child, and now he remembered why: it was a wholly unpleasant experience.


	4. Germination

In the days that followed, the atmosphere on the ship was decidedly sour. As it usually was when the three of them had a big blowout, they kept to themselves. Kish stayed in his room, devoting most of his time to moping (he was becoming an expert at that) over Ichigo's umpteenth rejection. He also grudgingly decided to take Pie's advice, resting as much as possible and letting his wound heal. He still wasn't on speaking terms with either of his teammates, so he found himself forced to limp to the kitchen for nourishment, but not too often. He didn't have much of an appetite to begin with.

Tart made a point of 'ignoring' Kish, childishly sticking his tongue out, blowing raspberries, or any other number of insulting gestures he'd picked up on Earth whenever he ran into him, completely missing the point of not paying attention to someone. With the loss of Kish as a viable companion, he sought out Pie - who wouldn't have anything to do with anyone. He stayed holed up in his lab, working, and said as little as possible. With neither Kish nor Pie to talk to, Tart found that he was lonely. The thought of going to Earth to make mischief occurred to him, but without Pie's consent, and considering the trouble they were already in, he gave up on that notion almost as quickly as it came.

The isolation got the better of him; almost a week after their failure on New's Year's Eve, Tart relented when Kish showed up in the common area, seating himself in front of the viewscreen and reaching for the remote. He glanced over at Tart, the two of them making eye contact but nothing more.

Pie usually opted for 'pointless' research during their downtime, scouring books liberated from various places on Earth, but Kish and Tart were far less intellectually inclined. The two of them ended up watching the various television programs they managed to pick up floating through the air above Tokyo. Some channels were too blurry to watch, but quite a few came through bright and clear. Human television surprisingly wasn't too different from the programs they'd gotten to enjoy during their trip to Earth (it seemed most advanced civilizations had devoted a large part of their technology to developing new ways to waste time), or the broadcasts available on their homeworld - in format. The content itself was pretty stupid, and Kish and Tart got a good laugh out of watching idiots roll in mud and try to twist themselves into physically impossible shapes all in the name of currency, human teenagers sobbing over each other and looking disinterested, and, of course, cartoons, although Tart fervently claimed that he didn't like 'that baby stuff'.

One of the aforementioned cartoons was on, some show with a young girl chatting with what appeared to be a winged rat, and Tart was staring at the screen dully.

"You watching this?" Kish asked, aloof. Tart shook his head.

"There's nothing on," he said, flatly.

"What do you mean there's nothing on? Don't we pick up at least 40 channels from Earth alone?"

"I meant, there's nothing on worth watching." Tart replied, testily. He still hadn't forgiven Kish, but it was the most social interaction he'd had in days. "It's all..."

"Stupid?"

"Yeah."

Kish flipped through the available stations to confirm Tart's statement - there really was nothing on worth watching. But anything was better than the awkward, tension-filled silence that would prevail without some background noise, so he settled on what appeared to be one of those wretched teenage primetime dramas. A group of girls not much older than the Mew Mews (save for Pudding) sat in the bleachers, giggling incessantly. Kish pretended to be interested, which wasn't too hard. The girls were clearly idiots but as humans went, they were pretty easy on the eyes.

After a few minutes, Tart snorted. "Girls are dumb. Why do they make those noises all the time?"

Kish looked up. "What noises?"

"That stupid 'teeheehee' noise. They sound like BIRDS." Tart groused.

Kish had to admit, Tart had a point. The giggling was a bit on the annoying side.

"And it's not just human girls, either," Tart continued, a little louder. "ALL girls are stupid. They giggle and whine about their clothes and boys and other dumb stuff. I hate them."

"Do you now?" Kish looked over at him; smirking. "So what, do you like boys, then?"

Tart's complexion darkened to the point where he actually rivalled Ichigo's natural hair color. "NO. I don't like ANYONE. It makes you act like a jerk."

That stung. "Maybe not now," Kish said, airily. "Wait until you get older and your hormones kick in. You'll change your mind."

"No, I won't!" Tart shouted. "I'll never, ever act that stupid over someone. Especially not a GIRL."

He slumped back in his seat, arms folded over his chest. Kish knew Tart would've killed him for calling attention to it, but he looked his most like a little kid at these moments. Watching the younger boy glare at the screen, huffing to himself, Kish felt a twinge of warmth. He didn't spend as much time with Tart as Pie did, even though they were closer in age, but he felt pretty much the same way about the kid. He could be irritating as anything when the mood struck, but he did seem to serve as the younger brother neither he nor Pie ever had.

Tart was so focused on being offended by the show that he didn't notice Kish having retrieved a cushion from the (stolen) couch they'd dropped in front of the viewscreen, aiming it in his direction, and chucking it at him. The force of the shot knocked him out of his seat. Sprawled on the floor, Tart grabbed ahold of the cushion, glaring murderously at his assailant. "What the hell was that for?"

"The other day," Kish said, eyes gleaming mischievously (as usual). "You didn't think I was going to let you get away with that, did you?"

"You're a jerk, Kish!" Tart howled, flinging the cushion in his direction. Kish dodged it easily. The handful of days of rest hadn't completely healed him, but he was in a lot less pain than he had been and moving wasn't as much of a chore.

"That was pathetic. You can do better than that," he taunted. Tart's face reddened once more, and with another angry shriek he teleported over to the couch, retrieving the remaining two cushions, and sent them flying in Kish's direction. "Too slow!" Kish called, materializing directly behind him. He floated upward, grinning at Tart from above. "You're getting out of shape. Soon you won't be able to keep up with any of the Mew Mews. Especially the yellow one."

It was Tart's berserk button. Letting out an incoherent yell of rage, he summoned a couple of vines from a nearby plant, sending it toppling over onto the floor where it's ceramic holder shattered. "Don't say that! Don't even mention that stupid monkey girl near me!"

The vine ensnared the sofa, lifting it shakily into the air. Kish gaped at the airborne piece of furniture, wondering if he'd pushed Tart a little too far.

"Overreact much?" was all he had time to say before Tart swung the sofa in his direction. Kish teleported only seconds before the couch occupied the space he'd been in. With nothing to break it's fall, the unfortunate sofa smashed against the floor, wooden legs splintering and upholstery ripping. In the silence that followed, only broken by Tart panting doggedly, Kish heard the younger boy whisper a barely audible "Oh shit."

He laughed. He couldn't help it. The common room was a mess, and if Pie left his lab long enough to see what they'd done to it he might reopen Kish's wound himself and kill Tart for good measure, but something about the scenario was hilarious. On the forgotten viewscreen, one of the girls shrieked as her bitter rival leapt over a cafeteria table and went for her face with immaculately painted nails.

Kish collapsed on the ground, amidst the broken wood and stuffing, holding his stomach (which didn't share in his mirth); soon Tart joined him. The tension was broken, and somehow all was forgiven; he doubted Tart would be lying a few feet away, laughing uproariously if it wasn't. After a moment they began to calm down, still chuckling. It was then that Kish raised another issue that would have to be addressed after they cleaned up, either burned or ejected the ruined couch into the black expanse of space, and changed the channel.

"You know we're going to have to steal another couch now, right?"

"Can this one be green? Orange is a really stupid color."

"Yeah, it is."

-oOo-

Making peace with Pie was a bit more difficult to initiate, mainly because Kish didn't see until a full week into the new year.

When he finally emerged from his lab and made his way to the common area a day or two after Kish and Tart's illegal redecoration activities, his only greeting was, in a placid tone that betrayed nothing, "Wasn't that couch a different color last week?"

Kish and Tart were seated on the couch in question, now a nice forest green instead of the vivid orange they'd been stuck with for the past few months. They looked up, feigning innocence. "We thought the place needed a change in scenery," Kish said, smoothly.

Pie raised an eyebrow, but said nothing further, turning on his heel and heading for his room. Kish stared after him guiltily, recalling the hurt expression that had crossed Pie's face following his outburst the last time they'd spoken. He leaned back, absentmindedly rubbing at his now hardened stitches again. "Has he been weird like that all week?"

Tart shrugged. "He won't talk to me either. It isn't just you."

Somehow, the revelation didn't ease Kish's conscience any. Tart continued, glancing over at him meaningfully. "He's probably worried about what Deep Blue is going to say."

Kish flinched. "Yeah, let's not talk about that right now."

Later that night, long after Tart had retired to his room, blearily complaining about how 'not sleepy' he was, Kish floated down the hallway to Pie's room, deciding to talk to him in person. He'd never been a fan of the silent treatment.

Pie's door wasn't shut, saving Kish the trouble of knocking and not getting a response. He opened his mouth to announce his arrival, and stopped short, his words dying in his throat. Pie was floating, with his back to the world beneath the skylight, the way Kish did from time to time. His posture was very different from the way he appeared to Kish and Tart on a regular basis - he seemed more relaxed, one hand extended towards the stars.

It was a perfectly ordinary scene; Kish sometimes found himself in a similar state of awe, watching the milky sea of stars surrounding the ship on occasion. They'd been on the ship for awhile, but there was still something majestic about the velvet expanse of space. But something about it struck him as incredibly sad.

Feeling as if he were intruding on something, Kish called out, in a stage whisper, "Pie?"

Pie glanced over his shoulder at him. For a moment, Kish found the expression on his face melancholy; it dissolved almost immediately, tightening into the expressionless mask he usually wore. "Yes?"

Kish was not used to apologies, and politeness wasn't one of his strong points. It took a lot of willpower to ask, quietly, "Can I come in?" instead of just barging in and plopping down on his friend's bed, the way he usually did. Pie didn't seem to care one way or the other, nodding slightly before turning back to the skylight.

Kish floated into the room (it was far less uncomfortable than walking, although it consumed more energy), noting how tidy it was. Tidy, and empty, save for a few piles of books and a few scant pieces of furniture. Kish and Tart's rooms had personality; the floor of Tart's room was often littered with toys, and Kish had gone as far as to bring a couple of posters and pictures from his room at home to line the walls of his room aboard the ship.

Of course, the majority of them were of girls.

Sitting on Pie's bed just felt awkward, given that Pie wasn't giving him the time of day, so Kish rose into the air to float beside him. Pie didn't react, continuing to stare out into space.

Kish cleared his throat. "So...um...see anything interesting up there?"

No reaction.

"I guess the constellations here are different from the ones at home. Not that we ever got to see them, or anything..."

"Lepus." The word took Kish by surprise, so used was he to Pie's silence.

"What?"

"Lepus. The hare." Raising his hand once more, Pie traced imaginary lines between a set of stars, eleven in all. "It's visible during winter, here."

"I don't see it." Kish frowned. "I think you're making this up."

Pie sighed. "Here." He pointed at two stars, gleaming more brightly than their siblings. "Those are the tips of the ears. That one denotes the tail."

Kish squinted, tracing the lines Pie'd drawn in his head. Seen together and isolated from the rest, it did faintly remind him of the animal in question. "...oh, wait, I think see it now."

"According to human legend, ancient farmers established the constellation in the sky as a charm to ward off the hares causing damage to their fields."

"Did it work?"

"Probably not."

Kish snorted. "I suspected as much. How do you know all this stuff, anyway? What are you, a well of useless knowledge?"

"I don't spend all my free time in front of the viewscreen." Pie said, crisply, but with the barest hint of a smile. It was the slightest of gestures, and only lasted for a moment, fading almost as quickly as it came. But to Kish, it spoke volumes.

"About what I said the other day...I didn't mean it." The apology wasn't nearly as graceful as it could've been, but it was the best he could do.

"...I know. You were speaking in the heat of the moment." Pie turned to look at him then. His face was yet impassive, but his features had softened. "I rarely take Tart's and your outbursts seriously, anyway."

"Oh, thanks a lot." Out of energy, Kish settled down onto Pie's bed, lying on his back. "It's nice to know you respect us so much."

"Heh." Pie resumed searching for images among the stars. "When we live on Earth, I imagine our people will establish their own constellations."

Kish yawned, stretching his arms above his head. "Maybe they'll name a couple after us. We are heroes. Kinda."

He drifted off to sleep where he lay, leaving Pie alone to stargaze to the sound of Kish's faint snoring.

-oOo-

Pie wasn't paying attention to the stars at all. They were the last thing on his mind.

He chanced a look over at his bed, where Kish had fallen asleep, limbs splayed out in all directions with his shirt riding up to expose the fresh bandages wrapped around his stomach. He didn't have a smile on his face, the way he had the night after his fight with the Blue Knight, but he still looked peaceful. Carefree.

Pie resisted the urge to glide down to get a closer look at him. He had the feeling that getting too close to Kish at the moment would be a very, very bad idea.

Contrary to Kish and Tart's beliefs, he hadn't merely been holing himself up in his lab that week.

Only a day after their return, Pie had gone to see Deep Blue himself, without informing Tart of his intentions. And for the first time since the beginning of their mission, he'd lied.

-oOo-

Needless to say, Deep Blue was not pleased with the results of their infallible plan to bring the Mew Mews to their knees.

"How dare you come crawling back to me after that shameful display." The blue eyes narrowed malevolently, and Pie trembled where he knelt.

"I apologize wholeheartedly for our failure," he said, shame curdling in the pit of his stomach.

Pie's reports often contained whatever recorded footage his parasites had collected during the course of battle. He cringed, watching the crystal clear images of himself and Tart, taunting the Mew Mews trapped within Ichigo's dream.

"You assured me that this Chimera's narcotic effect would be flawless."

Pie stared at the ground, his forehead almost touching the floor as he leaned further. "I did not factor in the emotional strength of Mew Ichigo's companions. That they would be able to awaken her was something no one could've foreseen."

Deep Blue fell silent, ruminating over this admission for a moment before responding, coldly, "Perhaps I was wrong to place my faith in you."

"I assure you-"

"You've assured me of many things before, and none of them have come to pass."

"We hold nothing but the deepest respect for you," Pie simpered, seething inwardly but pleased that his deceit had yet to be discovered. "My companions and I are honored to be those chosen to assist in your awakening."

"You haven't shown it so far."

"...please, allow us to atone for our mistakes. We have learned that our enemies are far easier to dispose of when faced alone instead of a group; from now on our efforts will be devoted to culling a single member from the flock to be dealt with individually."

"Hmph." The response was neither positive, nor negative; it was good enough for Pie. "I will not remain patient for long. I am, perhaps to my own detriment, counting on your success. Do not continue failing me."

Once the blue light faded, signalling that Deep Blue's consciousness had withdrawn, Pie fell back, breathing heavily. The doctored footage he'd shown to Deep Blue omitted the fact that it had been Kish who'd awoken Ichigo; he'd merely cut out that part, skipping from Zakuro's declaration that they would have to awaken Ichigo to the image of the Mew Mews escaping the dimension through the hole leading to the world outside. Altering the recording had taken a couple of hours - it wasn't his forte.

Working up the nerve to deceive Deep Blue had taken the better part of the day.

Perspiration soaked his collar; the twisting sensation in his stomach was more one of disgust than anything else. He felt like a fraud - no, he was a fraud, and he was just as bad as Kish, placing his emotions before the success of their mission. He was more than certain that if Deep Blue had discovered the truth about the cause of their failure, his wrath against Kish might've been deadly. And as angry as he was, Pie couldn't simply throw him from the ledge; not as a friend, and not as...whatever else they were now.

He was glad Tart wasn't with him; it would've been impossible to uphold the facade of stoic self-control around him. Pie returned to his room and slept for the next 16 hours, restless and without a single dream.

The following days were spent working on plans to isolate the Mew Mews, as well as compiling all the information he had on them. It was no surprise that they went down easily when separated and ambushed - they were merely human girls, after all, before they transformed. One specific plan called for Tart to act on his own, with the assistance of a new Chimera animal he'd worked up. If things went according to plan, not only would the scheme rid them of one of the Mew Mews and take out a pretty large amount of the human population in Tokyo. It would also redeem Tart in Deep Blue's eyes, following his last couple of outbursts and shows of disrespect.

Mistakes had been made, far too many, but it wasn't too late to reverse the turn of events in their favor. Pie had no doubt that if they could secure a single victory, and hopefully eliminate one of the girls in the process, it would have the dual effect of both turning the tide of the battle for Earth in their favor, and help restore their relationship with Deep Blue.

So intently focused on fixing the slew of recently erupted problems was he that during his period of isolation Pie didn't have much time to devote to thoughts of his teammates, which was an indirect blessing. It definitely took his mind off Kish.

-oOo-

Kish muttered in his sleep, turning over on his side. It may or may not have been a name that Pie didn't particularly want to hear, but he wasn't listening that closely.

Watching the peacefully slumbering Kish unconsciously invading his personal space once again, Pie wondered how he could've allowed himself to do something so unreasonable as developing an attraction to someone like Kish. Pie didn't have a 'type', he was certain, but even if he did Kish definitely wasn't it. Gender issues aside, he was irresponsible, hot-headed, disorganized...in some ways they were polar opposites. Those traits certainly weren't attractive.

Maybe it was physical. Against his better judgement, Pie slowly drifted over to hover beside his bed. He leaned over to peer intently at Kish's face, ignoring the trill of excitement the action ignited.

Pie was no expert on applying the standards of what counted as attractive to other people. He held a dim awareness of what he found attractive, but he'd never really paid attention to it. Kish claimed all of the Mew Mews, save for the youngest, were 'pretty cute', but to Pie they were merely irritating humans. If he stopped to think about it, perhaps they were.

He wasn't allowing himself to focus on the issue at hand. Sighing inwardly, Pie took another good look at his friend. He was attractive, in a different way from the girls. Those golden eyes, when wide open and fully alert, were especially alluring, often glittering with the potential for mischief. The soft green hair above them had a nice, healthy sheen, framing his pale face...beautifully? Had he ever used that word on another person before?

Pie massaged his temples, disappointed in himself once more. To be seriously considering the issue meant that he'd accepted it, and that wasn't something he could allow himself to do. Perhaps it was merely physical attraction. If that was the case, hopefully it would wear off soon. After all, it had only been two weeks since the trouble began. He couldn't think of what else it could be.

Whatever the case, he had to fight it. There were more important things to attend to.

Casting a wistful glance at his bed and it's sole occupant, Pie made his way to the common area, opting to sleep on the couch rather than deal with rousing Kish.

-oOo-

The next week passed rather uneventfully, but with a far more pleasant atmosphere on the ship with everyone's grievances aired and shoved aside. It culminated with a meeting with Deep Blue (sans Kish, of course) that was, surprisingly, fairly uneventful and brief.

Even though the image of their leader was but a projection, Pie got the sense that Deep Blue's mind was elsewhere. His presence seemed faded, the voice softer, and his only admonition in response to Pie's apologies was an offhanded "Hurry up."

The blue light faded, leaving Pie feeling unsettled; but Tart heaved a sigh of relief and grinned, pleased at having avoided a reprimand.

"I'm going out for a bit," he announced, preparing to float off.

"Where are you going?"

Tart gazed down at him, looking innocent. "Just for a walk."

He could've very well been telling the truth, but Pie doubted it. After having been confined to the ship for days he suspected the younger boy had a lot of pent up energy to release. The Chimera animal he was developing for Tart's solo mission was nearly complete. If he was going to destroy something and make mischief, it might as well be constructive mischief. "Wait. I have a job for you."

-oOo-

The Chimera animal was insect-based this time, although it was far more massive than the creature behind it's inspiration. It appeared to be a strange cross between a scorpion and a silverfish; it's shell shimmered in colors unnatural to either creature.

Tart gaped. "That thing is huge."

"It needs to be large enough to hollow out the entire area beneath the Tokyo Dome," Pie explained. "If it proves successful, I can produce more and release them beneath the city. The resulting damage would not only be a huge blow to the human population in this area; it would also cause enough chaos that we'd be free to act without interference."

Tart's eyes gleamed eagerly. "And you think Pudding will be there?"

Pie nodded. "After analyzing the data gathered on her over the past few months, there is a very great possibility that she will be in attendance at the event being held within the Dome. You are to engage her and, if possible, eliminate her."

"Cool!" Tart's face lit up with enthusiasm. "Wait, what about the other Mew Mews? What do I do about them?"

"Your orders are specifically to either eliminate or severely injure a single Mew Mew before the others arrive. Do not attempt to engage them all at once." Pie said meaningfully. Tart understood, without further clarification. Kish's incident had rendered the two of them wary of acting too rashly, Pie moreso than Tart, who couldn't help being childishly reckless from time to time.

"Okay," Tart said, offering no protest. The privilege of taking down Pudding was enough to satisfy him. "Are you coming along this time?"

Pie shook his head. "I'm hanging back to allow you a chance to prove yourself to Deep Blue without my assistance. Even if Mew Pudding survives, the damage to the Dome and the humans inside will be considered progress."

"There's no if," Tart corrected him, rubbing his hands together in what he deemed an appropriately villainous manner. "Without the rest of the zoo crew she's no match for me."

Pie considered upbraiding him for his overconfidence, then thought better of it. If Tart could produce the results, he really didn't care how much he bragged.

"What about Kish?" Tart asked, uncertainly. "Is he going to get a chance to make up for screwing everything up last time?"

"That's up to him," Pie responded in a particularly sharp tone; Tart got the feeling that the topic at hand was not one he was keen on discussing.

"Um...are you still mad at him?" he ventured, against his better judgement. Thankfully, Pie didn't lash out at him for prying, responding with a flat, unconvincing, "No."

Tart raised an eyebrow; he didn't believe that for a second. "Are you sure?"

"I've no reason to lie." Pie looked away, as if the situation were of no concern to him. He failed to realize that it had the opposite effect on Tart, who regarded him suspiciously for a moment.

"Kish's being all weird again," Tart continued, taking note of how Pie stiffened at the mention of their mutual friend's name. "He's in the training room moping about because his strength hasn't recovered yet."

"That's no surprise, considering the severity of his wound."

"It's his fault anyway," Tart raged, clenching his fist. "If he wasn't so stupid over that dumb girl he wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place. But..." his voice dropped, almost as if he were embarrassed to admit it, "I feel kinda bad for him, being stuck here all the time."

Pie stared ahead impassively, offering neither criticism nor agreement. Tart groaned inwardly, deciding to stay out of it. It made life on the ship tense and unpleasant when there was discord between his teammates, but if Pie wasn't ready to forgive Kish then it would be in his best interests to leave him alone. "Well, I'm going to go get ready."

"Wait," Pie said once more, his voice lacking it's usual conviction. If Tart hadn't known better, he'd have thought Pie actually sounded slightly nervous.

"There's something else I need you to do."

-oOo-

Kish extended an arm, grimacing at how much effort it took to clench his fist as tightly as possible. The long slash across his abdomen was now scabbed over, but it still ached faintly and actively hurt when he traced his fingers along the places where his stitches had been. His flexibility and strength had not yet returned to him; he could teleport with the same speed as before, and move just as quickly, but now the effort tired him out more easily. Calling his sai into existence, he experimentally swung them through the air, cursing the once swift motion's visible decrease in speed. He'd lost his edge.

With a heavy sigh, Kish dropped his weapons and slumped against the wall of the training room, sliding down to the floor where he remained sitting, unable to find the will to get up and resume getting back into shape. Invariably, his thoughts turned to Ichigo, which was both a blessing and a curse; the initial distraction brought a smile to his face, which faded as soon as he remembered that she 'hated' him.

That hatred was something Kish had not yet come to terms with. He could understand her frustration - after all, he and his friends were actively trying to kill her, her friends, and pretty much everyone else she'd ever known to make way for the colonization of their own race. Those weren't friendly circumstances, not by a long shot, and maybe he did have a bad habit of being a little on the forceful side.

...just a little.

Kish snorted. He really couldn't lie to himself regarding his penchant for being an outright sociopath at times. Yes, it was legally and morally wrong to abduct and steal kisses from girls that clearly hadn't consented to it, even if human media did make it seem like a normal form of interaction between teenagers. But it was so much fun, and the fact that Ichigo herself (her friends and the Blue Knight were a different story) had not yet retaliated in a truly harmful manner gave him hope that maybe she enjoyed it just as much as he did and was simply in denial.

He hoped. The fact that she might truly hate him, and the hopelessness of the situation if that was the case sat in the back of his mind, quite frequently bringing forth pangs of anxiety that settled in his stomach and refused to let go until he forced them out of sight again.

A red ball speeding towards him out of nowhere jostled him out of his musing. Kish reflexively raised his right hand to catch the ball, wincing as it slammed into his palm and dropped to the ground. He cursed inwardly, inspecting the object that lay beside him. It was an apple, now slightly bruised.

The culprits materialized a few feet away, Pie hanging back with his arms folded across his chest and Tart bearing a wicker basket that appeared to be full of fruit. Kish glared in their direction, both irritated at being interrupted and having his moment of weakness exposed. Tart was unfazed, greeting him rather cheerfully.

"Your wound is pretty much healed, but you probably shouldn't strain yourself yet," he chided; Kish resisted the urge to inform him that he sounded exactly like his mother. Or Pie. "We can handle things for awhile, so you should rest so you can get better soon."

Behind him, Pie gazed at him critically, following up Tart's kindly advice with a deadpanned, "Make sure you don't mess up our hard work again."

The words stung, and Kish clenched his fist, preparing to respond in kind. He caught himself, recalling the time he'd spent in Pie's room recently, listening to Pie drone on about the stars in a slightly boring, but not entirely unpleasant manner. He'd fallen asleep, he remembered, and woken up later that night alone - he'd found Pie asleep in the common room. That his older teammate hadn't simply woken him up and told him to get out was both odd and somewhat touching.

Kish sighed, smiling ruefully - he supposed Pie did have a reputation to uphold. "Yeah, I know."

Tart stepped forward, placing the basket of fruit beside him. "This is a present for you. It's a human tradition - they give fruit to their friends when they're sick as a sign of affection."

A look of confusion crossed Kish's face - it was a nice gesture, but it really wasn't Tart's style. Had the basket been filled with candy...

Tart leaned forward to whisper in his ear, grinning. "Don't worry about Pie. It was his idea to give you this, actually."

The expression of confusion deepened. Kish regarded Pie curiously; he was looking away from him, staring rather intently at absolutely nothing. It was such an avoidant, anxious gesture that it threw Kish for a loop. He'd known Pie for a long time, and avoidant, anxious gestures were not something he'd come to expect from him.

Tart drifted upwards, beaming. "We'll be going now. I've got a solo mission today."

"Solo?" Kish raised an eyebrow, skeptical. He glanced over at Pie. "Are you sure it's a good idea to turn him loose in Tokyo?"

"Tart has to prove his allegiance to Deep Blue without assistance," Pie said, placing emphasis on two words in particular. "This is an opportunity to do just that."

Those two words were the last ones Kish wanted to hear; he let out a heavy sigh. "Whatever."

Oblivious to the shift in atmosphere in his excitement, Tart darted out of the room, calling behind him, "Wish me luck!"

With Tart gone, an awkward silence hung in the air; Pie avoided making eye contact with Kish, therefore missing the glare Kish was directing at him. "You don't have to stay here to babysit me," he said, harshly. "I'm not going to interfere again."

"I'm aware of that. Whether you choose to believe me or not, this really is just a chance for Tart to redeem himself." Pie's voice was softer than usual; he sounded wistful. "You can too."

"Heh." Kish closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall. "I already told you, that's not going to happen. You can keep your devotion to yourself."

Pie frowned, but didn't push the issue. "That, too, is your choice," he sighed, teleporting out of the room without further commentary.

Kish stared after him, mulling over the exchange - and how strangely Pie was behaving. It wasn't too out of place; he hadn't done anything that would've been a true cause for alarm. But it was still off, somehow, and he intended to find out why.

The basket of fruit beside him caught his attention, reminding him that he hadn't eaten that day. That had been happening quite a lot recently. Kish rifled through the selection of fresh, clearly handpicked fruits - they looked far healthier than the ones he and Tart sometimes liberated from various grocery stores. Most were familiar, with a few exotic fruits he'd never seen before thrown in. He narrowed in on a what appeared to be a peach, despite it's skin being nearly as red as the apple Tart had thrown at him. He was surprised to find that it's interior matched it's skin; pinkish red, soft, and terribly juicy.

It was delicious.

-oOo-

Pie was mentally exhausted, by the time he and Tart finished the set-up for their scheme. It had all taken nearly six hours, but everything was in place. The Chimera animal was now digging away beneath the Tokyo Dome, it's progress being monitored by a number of parasites released alongside the it. Undisclosed to Tart, the parasites in question were also transmitting a live feed of the scene to Pie in his darkened lab; he didn't plan to interfere, but he did want to get a glimpse of how Tart handled himself without supervision. So far, his charge had done everything right, marking off the boundaries of the Dome and keeping the Chimera animal from straying too far away from it's goal.

Pie heaved a sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes for a moment. Tart seemed perfectly capable, and even if he didn't succeed in depleting their ranks they could at least hope to put a dent in the human population in the area. It was a cold, uncomfortable thought that nagged at him when he dwelled on it, so he didn't. It was a war they were in, and wars took lives. Besides, once Deep Blue awakened humanity's time on Earth would be at an end anyway. He couldn't afford to feel sorry for them, and he didn't; so far he'd witnessed nothing but ignorance and cruelty, towards themselves and the world around them. Still...

"Damnit," Pie said aloud, opening his eyes again. It was too dark to see the patterns etched into the ceiling above, but he stared at it intently anyway. This wasn't a problem he'd have faced before The Issue began. He couldn't afford to let his emotions get in the way of work again, even if they did persist in making it awkward and distressing to be around a certain individual whose name he refused to mention.

Almost on cue, a pair of gleaming golden eyes appeared directly above him in his line of vision, followed by the rest of Kish. Unsurprisingly, this was the last thing Pie was expecting, and he barely managed to catch himself before toppling over, chair and all. Kish found this highly amusing, chuckling as he lowered himself to the ground. "You should have seen the look on your face. That was priceless."

Pie offered up a silent prayer to Deep Blue, forcing himself to regain his composure before growling, "Why are you here?" He was glad that the soft glow of the monitors was the only illumination in the room. He had a feeling the slight flush tinting his face would've been noticeable otherwise.

Kish shrugged. "The door wasn't locked."

"Yes, it was. You didn't USE it."

Kish shrugged again, grinning. "Social interaction is good for you. Unless you've got something to hide. Were you doing something you didn't want me to see?"

It took Pie a moment to catch the unspoken accusation, but when he did, it rendered him speechless. Kish burst out laughing again. "Don't have a heart attack. I'm kidding. You've got to learn to lighten up."

Pie pointedly ignored him, directing his attention back to the video feed. Tart was back from wherever he'd gone, sitting on a pile of displaced earth and cement and watching the Chimera animal go about it's work. Another monitor displayed a view of the Dome's interior - the show hadn't begun yet, but there were a great deal of people milling around.

"So what's the plan?" Kish's voice rang out from behind him. Pie cringed inwardly at the sound, struggling to stay focused. He hadn't been so physically close to Kish since the night he'd fallen asleep in his room, and it seemed that the separation had done nothing for his unwanted crush (if that word was even applicable.) As before, he was hyperaware of everything, every centimeter of space separating their bodies. It was utterly maddening. "Going to have Tart attack the Dome? Bring it down upon the heads of the human scum inside? Take a few hundred people out in the process?" The anticipation in Kish's voice was a little unnerving.

"Indirectly. That Chimera's working on hollowing out the space beneath the Dome. Once it's finished, the Dome will collapse into the chasm, taking those inside with it."

"Oh. Sneaky." Kish nodded approvingly. "I like it. You know I prefer a more direct approach, but it works. What part does he play in all this?"

"He's supposed to engage the Mew Mew in attendance at the event being held in the Dome and incapacitate her."

"Hm. It's the little one, right? That's not going to work." Displaying his disregard for personal space, Kish seated himself lightly on one of the chair's arms, forcing Pie to scoot to the other side. "He likes her too much to actually kill her."

Pie glared at him from his small, cramped space in the chair that had been his before Kish barged in. "I have more faith in Tart's sense of duty than that. Don't project your own idiocy onto other people," Pie grumbled. "What makes you think his interest in that girl is anything more than childish rivalry anyway?"

"I know how to read people," Kish bragged, ignoring the insult. "He won't admit it, but he likes her. Trust me."

"She's a human, and an enemy. I'd think TART would have the sense to see that, even if you don't." The gauntlet was thrown, and the true issue dragged out into the open, but Kish brushed it off carelessly; he wasn't in the mood for confrontation.

"Doesn't matter. You don't choose who you fall in love with." Kish's voice took on a dreamy quality; Pie had no doubt that he was thinking of a certain redhead that constantly screwed up their chances for victory, time and time again. "It just sorta hits you, you know?"

Pie shook his head. "No, I don't know. I'm not prone to losing my sense of reason in such a manner."

Kish laughed at this, in that infuriating manner of his. "That doesn't mean it'll never happen. Although I'd really like to see the kind of girl YOU go for. Glasses...talks about boring crap all the time..."

Pie shifted uncomfortably. "I strongly suggest that we either change the subject, or that you cease speaking altogether."

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You're emotionally repressed."

"Shut up, or get out. Personally, I'd prefer both."

"Fine," Kish groused, folding his arms over his chest and lapsing into a sullen silence. "Killjoy."

Even without speaking, Kish's presence was overbearing. He shifted, fidgeted where he sat (which often resulted in brushing up against Pie), sighed, and finally gave up altogether, producing one of the red peaches from the fruit basket. "Hey, where did you get these?"

Pie looked blank, feigning ignorance. Kish rolled his eyes. "Oh, come off it. Tart told me it was your idea already. He couldn't keep a secret if he tried."

"They're imported from the continent to the east." Pie responded; flustered. "California, I think. That's the place. Not the whole continent." He hoped he didn't sound as stupid as he thought he did, and even if that was the case he really hoped Kish didn't notice.

Kish bit into the peach with relish, making no sign that he'd noticed anything out of the ordinary. "They're doing something right. I've never seen one that's red on the inside."

By this point, Pie looked and sounded downright embarrassed. "They're a special variety. They don't come naturally like that. Some fruits on this planet have a similar genetic structure and can be crossed with each other to produce a hybrid. Those are a hybrid between a peach and a plum."

"Oh. Humans can be pretty innovative sometimes."

"That they can," Pie agreed. "It's a shame that they choose to be destructive far more often."

"Wanna taste?" Kish held out the half-eaten red peach; for once the expression on his face was neither a smirk or a grin. It was a genuine smile, and for some reason it bothered Pie more than the alternative. He had a nice smile. Pie didn't realize he was staring until Kish waved the peach in his face. "Hey. Pie. Snap out of it."

"That's alright," Pie said quickly, returning his attention to the monitors and hoping that his face wasn't flushed once more. His stomach had twisted itself into a knot again, and it was very, very hard to concentrate on the Chimera animal's progress. This was exacerbated by the fact that he appeared to have developed another symptom, one that he hadn't had to deal with in awhile. The area below his stomach was aware of Kish's presence, too. That was new, and significantly worse than everything else combined.

Kish finished off his peach thoughtfully, licking the excess juice from his fingers. "Well...thanks. For the fruit."

Pie didn't trust his voice right then, opting to simply nod in response. Onscreen, the show had begun; the feed focused on Pudding, sitting in the audience chattering to herself. Parallel to that image was one of Tart, staring up at the ceiling of the huge cavern the Chimera animal had created, waiting for his moment. Kish's words echoed unbidden in his head. "He likes her. Trust me."

Pie hoped that wasn't the case, but he'd never been an expert at reading such things. Even then, while afflicted with the same disease that called for a decrease in logic as Kish, he found his obsession with Ichigo to be foolish. He took things at face value, and Tart never spoke of Pudding with anything other than ire in his voice. Granted, that was a lot, and he _did _have some fixation on seeing her cry, for some reason. At that moment Pie felt the faint stirrings of doubt. "Kish."

"Hm?" Having tired of watching the monitors, Kish had (thankfully) risen from his seat on the arm of Pie's chair and was wandering around the lab, poking and prodding at things. "What's up?"

"What makes you think Tart...," he struggled with the word, unused to speaking in such terms, "LIKES that girl?"

"Oh, that?" Kish leaned against the parasite tank, facing him. "Kids express it differently. Remember when you were a kid and you flirted with girls by throwing rocks at them and pulling their hair?"

Pie looked blank. "That's just asinine. _I_ never did that."

Kish sighed. "You know what? Don't worry about it. It's hard to explain anyway. Just trust me on this one. Why?"

"...nothing." Whether Kish was right or not, Pie hoped Tart would retain his common sense, unlike Kish. And himself.

Onscreen, alerted by the rumbling from beneath the Dome, Pudding left her seat and headed down to the basement. Pie was surprised that she didn't run into any security guards or other Dome staff on the way; he supposed they were busy trying to determine the source of the rumbling as well. She poked around for awhile until she found an opening, probably created by the Chimera and slipped into the open space beneath the Dome. At some point Kish rejoined him, although this time he opted to merely hover in the air beside the chair instead of sitting on it. To Pie this was an outright blessing - his body and nerves were finally returning to normal.

Kish pulled out another peach. "Couple of these says he's not going to do it."

Pie looked at him incredulously. "Are you seriously suggesting that I bet on the success of a scheme intended to reinstate us with Deep Blue?"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting! Betting makes it more fun!"

"Is that all you ever think about? We're not here to have fun!"

"Just because we're working doesn't mean we CAN'T have fun!" Kish said brightly. "Remember what I said about lightening up?"

"Fine, fine." Pie pressed his palm against his forehead, and left it there. He was starting to get a headache. "If he isn't successful, which hopefully won't be the case, I'll hand over a few more of those. Satisfied?"

"Good." Kish grinned. "It's too bad we don't have anything good to work with, but that'll do."

"And what's my compensation if I win?"

"Oh, yeah." Kish hadn't considered that. "What do you want?"

Pie thought for a moment before making his decision. "You'll consider joining us again." It was a shot in the dark, but Pie couldn't think of anything else that he could ask for. A little voice in his head that he also refused to acknowledge reminded him that this wasn't exactly true; he ignored it and all of it's vulgar, questionable suggestions. It took some effort, but he managed.

Kish's face darkened momentarily; it quickly faded into a craft grin. "Alright. I'll CONSIDER it."

He extended a hand; Pie wasn't used to betting on things and it took him a second to realize that Kish wanted to shake on it. He took it, cautiously, and they shook hands, Kish's sly expression matching his determined one. It didn't occur to him then that Kish wouldn't have agreed to such steep terms if he wasn't positive that he wouldn't have to pay up.

Pudding stumbled into the clearing where Tart sat, and the game (both of them) was on. They exchanged a couple of taunts, followed by Pudding transforming. Tart responded by attacking her wholeheartedly; she easily dodged his blasts, as if she weren't keen on fighting back.

"See what I mean? It's probably mutual," Kish said cheerfully. "If she was really serious about it she'd have actually done something by now."

"She's probably trying to throw him offguard."

"She's what? Eight? Normal kids don't think about stuff like that."

Pudding attempted to trap the Chimera animal with one of her Pudding Rings; it broke free, splattering a mess of gel-like substance that may or may not have been flan and mud everywhere. She attempted to run - and found herself trapped by a couple of Tart's vines. Tart crowed triumphantly, bragging about his success, and commanded the Chimera animal to attack her.

Pie blinked. That wasn't supposed to happen. "He's supposed to fight her himself. That Chimera is too strong for him to contro-"

Tart let out a yelp of surprise as he lost control of the Chimera animal; Pudding laughed in derision. It thrashed around, knocking loose a few support beams, and the entire cavern began to cave in. Pie leapt from his chair, staring at the deconstruction of his scheme before his eyes. The Chimera animal headed for the surface, and the feed cut out entirely as the majority of the parasites were buried in the rubble.

Pie watched, open-mouthed.

After a few minutes, the display flickered as a single parasite resumed it's transmission. Tart and Pudding were both alive, trapped beneath the Dome. Much to Pie's surprise, instead of simply teleporting out of the cavern and leaving Pudding to her fate, he stayed there, engaged in denying that they were anything other than enemies. The irony of the situation was overwhelming.

This went on for about 15 minutes, culminating in Tart falling silent and refusing to respond to the girl's incessant chatter. Why he didn't just get up and LEAVE was something Pie didn't understand. And then the realization that Kish had been right along dawned on him.

"...I called it," Kish spoke up then, patting Pie on the back sympathetically. Pie didn't move; he was stunned. With every passing minute that Tart failed to leave the cavern, despite it being the perfect setting for Pudding's demise, Kish's words echoed, growing louder. It was starting to grate on his nerves. "He likes her too much to actually kill her."

"How foolish." It was all he could say. He felt terrible, a mixture of relief, betrayal, and disappointment. Logically, those three emotions didn't sit well with each other, and they certainly didn't sit well when one was actually experiencing them. Tart was alive; that was good, although that relief and the initial fear that he was just realizing had welled up within him at the moment the cavern collapsed were as intense, if not more than what he'd felt when Kish was injured weeks ago. Perhaps it was because he was more aware of it now? Less intense, but still present was the disappointment in Tart's judgement. Tart was younger than Kish, but far more reliable, and he'd been expecting him to avoid whatever lapse in logic he and Kish were suffering from. Now he knew for certain that none of them were infallible. He couldn't even say that he was better than the two of them. He wasn't, not anymore.

Pie sat down slowly, counting his losses. Pudding was alive, and Tart was still there, sitting a few feet away from her, but he could regain his senses, and even if he didn't, the other Mew Mews were facing the Chimera animal outside the Dome - which would still collapse anyway. That was a comforting thought. They might still have some results for Deep Blue.

The next hour of footage, which he and Kish watched with growing excitement on one end and increasing anxiety on the other, proved that that was not to be the case. About 20 minutes in, the Chimera was destroyed, and the Mew Mews set about trying to prevent the Dome from falling with a power extension - weakened, of course, by Pudding's absence. Pudding herself began to succumb to the lack of air in the cavern, and around the 40 minute mark the feed cut out, possibly due to the parasite itself expiring from a loss of oxygen. However, even without the feed of the cavern it was clear what transpired next - just as the Mew Mews lost control of the Dome, a huge mass of thick vines erupted from beneath and around it, holding it steady. It was rather impressive, Pie had to admit; Tart's ability to manipulate plants was far more advanced than any of the others with similar talents on their planet. He didn't have to look any longer, nor did he want to.

A few taps on the control panel shut down both monitors, leaving Kish and himself in the dark with only the tank's dim glow for illumination. Neither spoke. Pie was in no mood to, and thankfully Kish picked up on that, refraining from the usual mostly good-natured ribbing he laid on Pie and Tart when their plans went awry.

Finally, Kish spoke, placatingly. "He's a kid. He probably couldn't help it, any more than anyone else can."

That was the wrong choice of words, and Pie turned on him then. "He could, and so can you. Ignoring duty in favor of...whatever this obsession you two have with these humans is a choice. You CHOOSE to let your feelings stand in the way. It's not an ailment. Don't pass it off as one."

Kish threw his hands up disarmingly, backing away. "Don't get mad at me. He's the one that messed things up this time. Besides, you wouldn't understand it anyway-"

"I know," Pie snapped. "Because I've never 'been in love with anyone or anything'. That's what you said, isn't it? I just sit in here doing what we were sent here to do. Because if it was left up to you two, we'd never make any progress. Have you forgotten WHY we're trying to awaken Deep Blue?"

"No," Kish said, coldly. "But I'm not. Not anymore."

In the interest of getting his point across, Pie let that one slide. "Have you forgotten about everyone at home?" he said, softly. "We're not fighting for ourselves."

"Of course I haven't." Kish sounded offended. "I haven't forgotten them, nor why we're here. But I haven't traded in my soul, either. Not for Deep Blue. You shouldn't let go of yours so easily."

With those final words Kish walked out, dropping the peach he'd been holding in Pie's lap before his departure. At least he actually used the door that time, although the note of finality it slid shut with made Pie wish he hadn't.

It took him a moment to realize he was shaking, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why.

-oOo-

-oOo-

A.N.: Yeah, I said I wouldn't do these. I lied. I intended to end this chapter later than this, but it's pretty long and now seemed like a good stopping point. We've had a lot of angst these past few chapters - next chapter there's a fluff increase. Things get better for poor Pie, Lettuce and the other Mew Mews show up, and the tone gets a bit lighter. A bit. I'm making them work for their happy ending! :D

I tried to stick as closely to the episode referenced here (40) as possible; there might be a few inconsistencies, which I apologize for, and also any OOC-ness. Also, creative license taken with the actual structure of the ship. Seriously, we don't get a good idea of what this thing looks like on the inside from either the anime or the manga.

I'd initially planned to write it all at once, but I'm having fun doing it slowly and editing for a few days after completion of a chapter, so it'll probably be a few weeks between updates. Nothing like the couple of years it took to write Denial. That was stupid. Anyway, thank you for reading if you still are, C&C appreciated to let me know if I'm failing miserably or not, hope everyone's having a nice day. See you towards the end of August! :3


	5. Emergence, Stage 1

The sun rose once more, bathing the world with its brilliance as it had for countless millennia; the formless entity gnashed his proverbial teeth at the sight. He'd long since forgotten the sensation of warmth against his skin, as well as the longing the memory used to awaken within him.

Due to the slow yet somehow steady progress of the three devotees he'd been lucky enough to get ahold of, he was now powerful enough to alter the dimension his consciousness inhabited - he often used this to create a temporary form for himself. He couldn't leave, of course; his 'body' was no more substantial than the image he projected for his followers. Still, it was a small comfort he allowed himself, alongside recreating structures from the few memories he had left of the planet before the vermin took hold of it.

Seating himself on a lone stone column positioned in a field of phantom flowers, the entity known to Kish, Pie, and Tart as Deep Blue inhaled, sniffing the air around him. The actual scent of the flowers was one more memory that had flaked away over the years, rendering it a futile gesture. Anyway, that particular species was long extinct, and had been for centuries. Frustrated, he stood, robes swirling around him, and with one swift motion lit the entire simulated field ablaze. The flowers shriveled, becoming blackened husks almost instantaneously, and still the flames smoldered. He laughed, then, flopping down into the charred grass in the burning field - of course, he felt nothing as the flames consumed his robes and went on to melt the flesh from the phantom body beneath. And then the images were gone once more, replaced by an endless pool of deep, crystal blue water that spread out in all directions, as far as the eye could see.

He'd been alive for a very long time; if you could call the facsimile of existence he led 'living'. Without a body, sensation was meaningless, and millennia of isolation, waiting for someone to free him, had rendered most of his memories of other people meaningless as well. He could no longer recall his family, if he'd had one, although he suspected that they would've looked remarkably similar to the three Earthians that had arrived a while ago, bearing their sob story and seeking a savior. They weren't too physically different from the humans he despised; the true difference lay in their ability to tap into the energy of the planet they dwelt upon and use it for their own purposes. It was how they were able to communicate with him. No human possessed that ability naturally.

His memories, emotions...all of it was now gone, consumed by the hatred he held for the planet's dominant race; his ambition was no longer freedom to embrace the sun once more. He merely wanted to destroy, and lay the planet to rest. Of course, that wasn't what he told the Earthians seeking his assistance. They wanted the planet for themselves and their kind (once his kind, so very long ago), and wouldn't have been so quick to resort to genocide had they not held the hope that he would lead them to salvation.

After a good 3000 years, though, Deep Blue was willing to do anything to free himself, even play God.

-oOo-

"Pie. PIE. HEY."

Pie stood in front of the cabinet, holding a (stolen) box of cereal Tart had requested a couple of minutes ago. He made no sign of having heard Kish, nor remembering that he was in the process of doing something; he stood there, frozen in place and staring off at some unknown point in the distance.

"PIE. SNAP OUT OF IT."

Suddenly recalling what he was doing, Pie started, a horrified expression flashing briefly across his face before he managed to reel it in. The box of cereal wasn't so lucky, tumbling from his hands to scatter across the floor.

Tart groaned from where he sat at the table, rolling his eyes. "That was the last box! Thanks a lot, Pie!"

Kish shrugged. "Just steal another one. You can teleport - who's going to notice?" Normally such a comment would've elicited a reaction from Pie; instead he knelt, busying himself with cleaning up the spilled box of cereal. Kish's voice rang out from somewhere above him and he squared his shoulders at the sound, ignoring it. It wasn't easy.

"What's wrong with you? You were spacing out again." There seemed be something very similar to concern in Kish's voice, but Pie refused to dwell on it. It was one more meaningless thing swimming in a sea of meaningless things that were intent on drowning him within them.

"It's nothing," he heard himself say, somewhat icily. "Merely stress at our lack of performance as of late." He punctuated the statement by glancing up at Kish, eyes narrowed in unspoken accusation.

"Tch." Kish folded his arms over his chest, ignoring the look Pie was directing at him. "Not my fault. Or problem, for that matter."

Pie sighed, dumping a few handfuls of spilled cereal in the organic wastebin and wiping the crumbs on a nearby towel. Kish glared at him, obviously spoiling for a fight, while Tart watched them both, entranced by the antics of his elders, but Pie refused to rise to the bait and excused himself without further commentary.

"What the hell is his problem?" he heard Kish ask Tart in his wake. If only he knew.

Pie didn't head to his lab, as he usually did when frustrated. Instead he made his way to his room, shutting the door and lying flat on his back on his bed. His eyes traced the matrix of tiny bumps on the ceiling idly. It hadn't been a very good half a month or so.

Although he didn't understand Kish's obsession with Ichigo, he now held unspoken sympathy for his plight. Being attracted to someone, especially someone within such close range was torture. He found himself paying attention to every little thing his oblivious teammate did, from the moments of melancholy to the periods of normalcy (taunting Tart mercilessly, nabbing things, dropping lewd comments and basically making Pie question why the hell he was attracted to him in the first place.) It wasn't just the actions he noticed, it was everything. If Kish passed out on the sofa in the common area, Pie caught himself observing how he didn't snore TOO loudly, listening for the fragments of words he sometimes whispered in his sleep. If Pie just happened to be walking past the training room while it was occupied, he couldn't help sneaking a peek at its occupant, waving his sai around in complicated patterns that spelled death for anyone foolish enough to get too close.

He noticed everything from the light sheen of perspiration shining on his brow, to how it dampened his clothing ever so slightly, and it invariably sent Pie skittering back to his room, clenching his eyes shut and willing the thoughts running through his head to leave him be.

It was beginning to affect his performance, which is why it took a whole week before his next scheme was fully fleshed out. During his previous bout of staying holed up in his lab to work he'd managed to push his preoccupation aside and focus on the task at hand. That wasn't the case this time. With a heavy sigh he rolled out of bed and forced himself out of the distraction-free sanctity of his room. Perhaps the walk to the lab would help him clear his head.

The fruit of a few weeks of labor floated in the glass chamber at middle of the room. Her (for while the gender of Chimera animals was sometimes hard to discern this one was most definitely female) eyes were closed, and her thin, mermaid-like form was motionless. Only the slow rising of her chest indicated that she was indeed alive - that, and the vitals racing across Pie's screen. Pie studied the Chimera's vitals carefully. It was almost time to move her to the position he'd secured in Tokyo Bay - where, if everything went as planned, the Chimera would rapidly increase in size, power, and toxicity. And within a couple of weeks, she'd awaken, spread the webbing beneath her arms, and release a deadly toxin into the Tokyo Bay, decimating the city's economy, staggering it's water and food supply, and creating a mass panic among Tokyo (and hopefully the rest of Japan's) human populace.

It was their largest scaled plan to date, and could result in the deaths of millions of people - far more than the sinking of the Tokyo Dome. And for some reason that Pie couldn't put his finger on, the flatness of that thought bothered him somewhat. He'd observed them far long enough to know that humanity wasn't worth the effort the Mew Mews put into saving it, and he burned (a little more intensely as of late) with hatred whenever he recalled the incident in Odaiba the Christmas beforehand. He blamed the emotions he'd neither sanctioned nor welcomed the awakening of. It was easier to do something that he KNEW was morally reprehensible, survival aside, when he didn't have the capacity to feel anything about it. And unfortunately, thanks to Kish, now he did, on some small scale.

Pie shook his head lightly, casting those thoughts aside. He could dwell on the philosophy behind their actions at a later date, perhaps when he and his kind weren't teetering on the edge of destruction.

-oOo-

Once more, he knelt before Deep Blue, head bowed in deference - only this time, he did it alone. Kish, of course, was not present, but he'd also refrained from informing Tart of the audience as well. He'd felt it was for the best, as well as conveniently omitting most of the details surrounding their last attack on the Mew Mews. Tart's obviously falsified excuse for his failure to leave a dent on Mew Pudding was so contrived that not only had Pie not been able to piece it together in a way that made any sense, but it had taken all of his willpower not to inform Tart that he knew exactly what had gone on at the Tokyo Dome that day. He managed to feign stupidity well enough convince Tart that his lie had gone over well, but it took tremendous effort to do so, and for a few days following the incident he'd been unable to look in his young ward's direction without being stricken with the urge to throttle him.

At the same time, he felt a twinge of relief that the dishonest little punk WASN'T buried in a pile of rubble beneath the Dome.

Deep Blue listened, with an air of impatience, as Pie outlined his newest scheme. Had Pie been significantly less nervous, he would've noticed that the entity's attention was elsewhere; as it was he kept his eyes trained on the ground, on knuckles paler than looked healthy, as he spoke.

"The minimum human casualties resulting from the toxin successfully being introduced to the Tokyo Bay environment is still within the hundred thousands from direct exposure alone," Pie explained, ignoring the odd pang of guilt in his chest as the words left his mouth. "When taking into consideration the economic downturn in response to the destruction of the bay's wildlife, as well as the possibility of the toxin filtering into the water table and being unwittingly spread to other bodies of water, those numbers will skyrocket."

"Hm." Deep Blue seemed to mull over this for a moment before responding. "And how does this plan assist you in locating the remaining deposits of Mew Aqua?"

"With the human population of Tokyo, and eventually Japan distracted by the crisis in the bay, we will be at leave to search without interference. The Mew Mews are merely young human girls in their original form, and their lives will most likely be gravely affected by the loss of the bay as well, aside from the possibility of either them or their benefactors falling prey to direct toxin poisoning." Pie allowed himself to glance upwards then, hoping to find something other than the usual disappointment smeared across Deep Blue's shaded face that had become all too common as of late.

Deep Blue's expression had shifted into something akin to a smile, to his surprise, and his voice was a little less hard as he issued his verdict, "Very well. You may proceed, but take care that your plans are not thrown to the wayside as they usually are. Avoid detection at all costs."

Pie lowered his head once more. "You are too kind, and we hold nothing but gratitude for your guidance."

"We?" Deep Blue sounded bemused. "You, and your young ward are still loyal to me, are you not?"

It wasn't a question Pie had ever been asked before. That Deep Blue would even question his loyalty did nothing for his already intense anxiety; he hoped that his newfound interest in his teammate wasn't affecting his performance so greatly that it resulted in angering him, of all people. "Yes, of course," he said cautiously.

"And the child?" Pie hesitated with that one. Tart was still loyal, to his knowledge; unlike Kish he still attended audiences when informed of them, and he continued to blanch appropriately when Pie spoke of the consequences of disappointing their 'god'. His reaction seemed to be more out of fear than respect, but at least he didn't flaunt his heriticism the way Kish did.

"He remains loyal, but he is prone to mistakes. His talents do not erase the fact that he is still a child."

"Then you must keep an eye on him, and make sure he does not stray down the wrong path," Deep Blue said crisply. "You alone bear the burden of orchestrating my awakening and the reclamation of this planet...Pie."

Pie flinched involuntarily. It was a day of firsts - Deep Blue had never, ever referred to any of them by name, and certainly not in such a confiding manner. The soft tone of his voice, which Pie had not thought him capable of, sounded more like one reserved for a friend than a servant.

"Your competence and intelligence holds this mission together, and when I am restored to glory you will surely be rewarded for your efforts. I thank you for your loyalty."

The image faded as abruptly as usual, leaving a thoroughly confused Pie still kneeling, staring at his hands. He couldn't tell whether he was frightened or overjoyed at Deep Blue's words. He suspected it was a little bit of both.

-oOo-

Exiting the audience chamber, he nearly collided with Kish, who was hovering just outside the doorway. The expression of guilt that fluttered briefly across Kish's face suggested that he'd been eavesdropping.

Still somewhat lightheaded from the results of his meeting with Deep Blue, Pie let his composure hit the ground, visibly startled by Kish's appearance. He hadn't seen him anywhere near the audience chamber since his injury the year before, and he definitely wasn't expecting to see him then. "What are you doing here?"

Kish shrugged. "Just curious," he said, airily. "It's interesting to watch the crippled lead the blind."

Pie opened his mouth to protest the accusation, but Kish was already gone.

-oOo-

Pie's suspicion was not unfounded - Kish had indeed been eavesdropping. He'd witnessed the entire conversation between Pie and Deep Blue, and the change in tone in the mysterious entity's voice was not lost on him.

As much as he pretended not care about his former teammate's proceedings now that he was no longer directly involved in them, it bothered him to no end just how easily Pie allowed himself to be manipulated.

Perhaps he wasn't fully aware of it - until recently Kish was more than certain that his companion had the emotional intelligence of a stone. Taciturn and far too concerned with organization, capable of making sense out of the endless stream of data readings that ran across the monitors in the lab but fumbling when faced with idle conversation. Both of his friends were dearer to him that Kish would _ever_ let on, but in some situations Pie's inability to read between the lines was pretty frustrating. Then again, that was the price of devotion, wasn't it?

He'd been forced to bite his lip to keep from barging into the room and confronting the entity, as a voice feigning familiarity pushed past the standards of appropriate decorum all of their previous audiences had set the precedent for. He'd never once called any of them by name, and to do it while Pie was so obviously set on making up for their past failures was downright underhanded.

Kish frowned, hovering above his bed restlessly. Maybe his assessment of Deep Blue's true motives was being colored by his rapidly deepening hatred of the entity. He had essentially sentenced Kish to death, after all. But he couldn't shake the thought that perhaps their so-called god wasn't being upfront with them.

Kish was far too agitated to deal with being onboard the ship at the moment. His wounds had all but completely healed, allowing him to move about as freely as before, although now he had more free time than he wanted. A good bit of it was spent training, in an attempt to return to full strength. The rest was spent exploring the world they were waging war against - he'd taken to merely observing human interaction not just with their environment, but with each other. They were stupid creatures, but the more he witnessed the more similarities he saw between their enemies and themselves. That wasn't the most pleasant thought, so he'd found another activity to distract himself with for the time being: sitting in a large tree outside Ichigo Momomiya's bedroom window.

His only regret was that Ichigo was smart enough to close the blinds before undressing.

Still, he was content to watch her merely exist in her environment, and it was to his observation post that he headed now. The tree's branches were thick enough to support his weight, and it was thankfully some sort of evergreen that hadn't shed its strange leaves for winter. Settling into what was becoming his favorite spot to sit and think, Kish sighed, his anxiety fading.

Ichigo wasn't doing anything exciting. She was attempting to do what appeared to be homework, and it wasn't going well. Every couple of minutes she would express her frustration loudly and vehemently, and at one point she snapped a pencil in half. She was adorable when she was angry, although she didn't realize it.

The lovelorn Kish's thoughts turned to the rest of the conversation that he'd picked up earlier: the details of the Tokyo Bay strike. He knew Pie probably wouldn't tell him about it unless he confronted him; ever since interfering with their attempt on the Mew Mews' lives the year before Pie was leery of letting Kish know too much for fear that he would interfere again. He needn't have worried: his concerns did not go against what they wanted. He had his own agenda, and that involved making sure that Ichigo survived whatever happened. Kish could've cared less what happened to the rest of humanity, and the Mew Mews; as long as he could scoop Ichigo up from the wreckage and keep her by his side he'd be happy.

Yes, it was probably foolish, and unlike Pie he was fully aware of it. But such was the price of devotion.

Ichigo left the room a few minutes later after being called down to dinner, but Kish barely noticed for once, lost in his own scheming. He wouldn't interfere with the Tokyo Bay strike. But he would hang close enough to make sure that whatever happened didn't encroach upon his _personal_ goals.

-oOo-

Another handful of days passed uneventfully, as the Chimera animal continued to grow steadily in her tank. Flimsy, fleshy material not unakin to webbing began to sprout beneath her arms, and when her head brushed the top of the tank Pie decided it was high time to move her to the bay. Equally importantly; by now the temperature of the water had warmed up enough to allow the Chimera to continue growing beneath the surface without freezing to death. This procedure went more smoothly than he imagined it would, possibly because he didn't bother to inform either Kish or Tart of his plans, and in the course of one night his newest project floated in the depths of the bay, her heart beating solidly and the webbing beneath her arms growing thicker and more swollen with toxins with every passing moment.

In the meanwhile, life on the ship was more or less back to normal. Kish alternately ignored his teammates in favor of looking like a wounded beast and made an ass of himself as normal, according to which mood the pendulum swung towards. Tart's behavior was much more suspect. He spent a lot of time away from the ship, on small outings that he did not bother to relate to Pie OR Kish. This was strange, as generally whenever he was away making mischief he made sure he recounted his efforts in stunning detail. Wherever he was going, he didn't want them to know about it, and usually took the roundabout way of leaving the ship in what he took to be a clandestine manner. In reality, he just looked guilty and it was obvious that he was sneaking off. It was in this way that he stumbled upon Pie checking in on one of his devices via image projection. It looked like a small black and white striped top, spinning blithely in some far off body of water.

"What's that?" he asked innocently, pointing to the top and hoping that his shiftiness had gone unnoticed. Luckily, Pie was too preoccupied with his work to worry about Tart's doings.

"It's an ocean current generator," he responded, without further explanation.

"What's that?"

"It's used to generate waves in large bodies of water."

"Hm. What are you using that for?"

Pie decided it was time to inform Tart of their new scheme, especially since his presence would be required when it went live. Raising a hand and clearing the image of the top to show Tart the Chimera animal now slumbering in the Tokyo Bay, he cleared his throat and began. "I'm raising a Chimera animal in the Tokyo Bay. When she's fully grown, she will be huge, and release a powerful toxin from her body." Here the image of the small Chimera animal lengthened, and spread the webbing beneath her arms. "The currents will be used to spread the toxins from her body into the water of the bay, and everything they come into contact with will be poisoned and perish."

Tart grinned mischievously. "But won't the Mew Mews find it before then?"

"I'm releasing a large amount of smaller Chimera animals into the water to serve as a distraction. Besides, she won't be large enough for detection for a few more days."

Tart whistled, clearly impressed by Pie's efforts. "So what do we do until then? Just wait? I'm getting bored."

Pie met his gaze, his expression severe. "This isn't a game, you know."

"I know, I know." Tart rolled his eyes. "You don't have to remind me." He continued on in a parody of Pie's controlled, serious tone: "'Lives are at stake, this is an important mission...'"

"Stop that."

Tart laughed, a happy, carefree sound that made something in Pie's chest twist uncomfortably. "I'm just kidding," he said dismissively. Pie didn't share his sentiment. The 'something' nagged at him, even after Tart turned to leave, walking for once. He wondered whether he'd noticed it before - how small his teammate was. He wasn't much older than Pudding, perhaps a year or two, old enough to be extremely skilled in the art of encouraging the growth of and coaxing plants to do his bidding but still young enough to indulge in the occasional tantrum. Deep Blue's words echoed in his head. "And the child?"

Was Tart still loyal?

Pie was beginning to have his doubts.

"Tart." Tart halted in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder at his elder.

Choosing his words carefully, Pie asked the question that he'd been pondering ever since his audience with Deep Blue, days beforehand. "Are you still dedicated? To our mission? To Deep Blue?"

For a mere hint of a second, Tart hesitated. Catching himself almost immediately, he groaned, clearly feigning offense. "Of course! I'm not Kish. I'm not chasing after a stupid human all the time."

Pie raised an eyebrow. "That's good to hear. You're a vital part of this mission. Your assistance is invaluable, especially with the loss of Kish's abilities."

As expected, the praise went straight to Tart's head. "Of course I am!" he said haughtily, drawing out a vine from a nearby plant. The thin green tendril wove through the air like a wayward snake. "And don't worry about me. I'd never fall for a dumb human girl like that. I have..."

"Standards?"

"Yeah, that." With that the young alien withdrew, wrapping the vine around the plant's stem with a wave of his hand. Pie watched him go, brow furrowed with anxiety that he refused to acknowledge.

-oOo-

"Don't you guys ever get bored?"

Pudding darted to the side, narrowly avoiding being ensnared by one of Tart's vines. The vine glanced harmlessly off a nearby Plexiglas window, drawing an incoherent snarl of irritation from its owner.

"Hold still so I can kill you!" Tart yelled, losing his already tentative hold on his composure and setting off after Pudding. This was not in the plan, Pie noted. But then again, neither was the fire, the jet of water gushing from the nearby fire hydrant that had met its untimely end beneath the wheels of a now totaled car, nor the amount of natural collateral damage suffered by their surroundings.

Looking around at the wanton destruction, he found himself wondering where, exactly, things had gone so horribly wrong.

He supposed maybe his biggest mistake had been bringing Tart along in the first place. It was merely a lead on a source of Mew Aqua in a small park; he couldn't exactly detect WHERE the signal was coming from, but he knew the general location. The unveiling of his Tokyo Bay Chimera animal was only a couple of days away, and until then he and Tart literally had nothing to do besides wait for the creature's toxicity to reach its full capacity. With that in mind, he'd asked Tart to come with him to investigate, which would have gone well. The park was nearly deserted - early Sunday morning, and many people were still in their beds. In the remote location he'd chosen (within the branches of a thankfully incredibly leafy tree) they'd had almost complete privacy. From there they could survey the lay of the park, and try to narrow down the source of the signal he'd picked up.

It was just his luck that two of the Mew Mews, the green-haired one, and the small blonde were also in the park, apparently merely strolling and enjoying each other's company.

It was here that the inclusion of Tart turned out to be a mistake.

Pie had spotted them, from yards away; he'd neglected to tell his charge, initially. He didn't want trouble with the Mew Mews that day. Unfortunately this didn't last long - Tart noticed them only a few minutes after he did. Pie caught the gleam in his eye, quickly placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing lightly.

"Not today. Just let them go," he said firmly. Tart sighed, obviously disappointed, but he resumed his position, hidden within the tree's boughs. He retained a sullen silence, as the pair approached the tree they were hidden within, and even as they passed beneath it. The two were engaged in conversation; it appeared to be about one of their run-ins with the very pair hidden in the tree above them. Had their hearing been slightly less keen, they'd have missed the portion of the conversation they overheard as the two girls, completely unaware of their presence, walked right beneath their enemies, still chatting.

"And so I told that midget, "I'm taller than you are,"" Pudding giggled. "You should have seen his face." The other girl (Lettuce, Pie recalled) giggled as well. It couldn't have been more obvious who they were talking about.

Pie was sitting next to him, and unlike them, he COULD see Tart's face. It was a rather bold shade of red.

With a shriek of rage, Tart threw himself from the branch, launching himself at Pudding like a bullet. It was only her amazing reflexes that kept her from being throttled by one of Tart's vines. "I thought I told you not to tell anyone that!" he yelled, not only giving away where he'd been spending some of his time recently, but completely blowing their cover.

Everything that came afterwards (it was routine, at this point; transformation on one side, summoning a Chimera animal from Pie's standby supply, cue destruction) was par for the course. The Chimera animal, a large, strangely coloured amalgamation that may have at one point been a tanuki, spat bolts of energy at the two girls, as well as destroying the foliage with heavy swings from its tail. Tart, who appeared to be focusing on Pudding exclusively, ignored both Pie's orders and the Chimera, and while  
his attacks kept Pudding from being able to assist Lettuce, he was also causing enough of a scene (by now the battle had spilled out in the street) that Pie knew it would be nearly impossible to search the area for days after the ruckus died down. He clenched his fist, frustrated with the whole situation.

Even more frustrating was the fact that, from where he floated in midair, he could see two of the other Mew Mews approaching in the distance. Ichigo was among them.

With the momentary distraction, he supposed he had a few minutes to continue his search. He had no doubt that the Mew Mews would make short work of the Chimera he'd summoned. It was weaker than what he'd been throwing at them over the past couple of months.

He glanced at the small device he'd brought with him, surprised at what he saw. The blue dot representing the Mew Aqua was rapidly moving away from the scene. How could that be possible?

Looking up, he saw a strange, yet plausible solution - scores of birds disrupted by the sudden outbreak of violence were fleeing the park. Pie gritted his teeth. If that was the case, it'd be extremely difficult to track down, especially given the amount of birds that called Tokyo their home.

The addition of two voices beneath him alerted him to the arrival of Mint and Ichigo, who'd seemingly transformed on their way there. Lettuce, who'd been having a rather hard time facing the Chimera alone, seemed overjoyed to see them; Ichigo and Mint waved the disheveled, breathless girl to the side and ran over to face the creature.

At that moment, something very peculiar happened.

The girl - Lettuce - looked up at him, staring straight at him with brilliant green eyes that held an emotion he was unfamiliar with. It wasn't rage, nor disapproval, as Pie would have suspected. Instead, she looked rather sad, as if she felt PITY (of all things) for him.

It was too much.

In a rare moment of uncontrolled anger, Pie reached for his fan, readying himself to glide down and attack the foolish girl. Who did she think she was? To be as insolent as to believe that she understood them, that she could feel sorry for those trying to take her life and her home - it irritated him more than anything else had that day, although he couldn't exactly pinpoint why.

The stupid girl continued to stand there, even though it was clear that he meant to attack her. Well, so be it, Pie thought, moving in close so he could get a better shot...and stopping perhaps twenty feet away from her.

The look in her eyes was so clear, so free of judgment that he found himself unable - unwilling? - to let fly with a bolt of energy. He stared back at her, realizing that it was the first time he'd ever seen a human look at him in such a way. He didn't like it, not one bit.

Her lips were moving; it was hard to hear anything over the sound of the battle raging nearby, but he could just make out the words.

"I'm sorry."

Pie fled. Rattling off a stray, unfocused bolt of lightning that didn't land anywhere close to his target, he turned tail and glided away from her, away from the Chimera animal quickly dissipating into dust. He caught sight of Tart in the distance, still chasing Pudding, and teleported in front of him.

"We're leaving," Pie snapped, seizing a handful of the child's 'shirt' and dragging Tart along with him. Before they withdrew he could see Pudding's face, her expression one of disappointment. Well, that was fine - it was mutual.

-oOo-

For the third night in a row, Pie found himself wide awake, brooding.

It wasn't his style to brood. It got absolutely nothing done, and he wasn't a fan of doing things that served no purpose. And yet, the past few months had ignited a level of anxiety greater than anything he'd felt since before they left their planet.

It was frustrating as hell.

His thoughts chased each other around and around, like a dog tailing a wily cat. Faster and faster, until they melded together, effectively becoming a chimera in themselves, and he could no longer tell what bothered him the most. Kish, their failures, Deep Blue's disapproval, that GIRL, the one called Lettuce, the look in her eyes...

Pie rolled over in his bed and buried his face in his pillow.

After returning to the ship, he'd informed Tart of how disappointed he was with his behavior that day. It took all of the self-control he could muster not to simply shout "You idiot" and throw his fan at the kid. Tart was smart enough to know how badly he'd screwed up, but at the same time he retained a level of self-righteousness that kept him from simply saying 'sorry' and slinking off to his room. That was new - Pie could remember when he'd responded with respect almost constantly. At some point that had changed, and he didn't know when.

Instead of simply saying 'sorry' and slinking off to his room, Tart chose to try and defend his position, and when Pie informed him that his position was indefensible and finally resorted to the word he'd been wanting to toss out all along, Tart responded with the most childish option possible.

He threw a tantrum, yelled at Pie, yelled in general, and darted off to his room, still yelling. That was also new. It was behavior that he'd previously only resorted to with Kish; never with Pie. That was troubling in itself - it placed a rift between them, and Pie felt...lonely. He'd always had Tart by his side, in agreement with his decisions. Knowing that Tart had found something - someone - else to spend his time with, someone who appeared to be influencing _his_ decisions...it hurt, more than he'd allow himself to admit.

At least he had the Tokyo Bay Chimera animal to look forward to. Tart was a vital part of that scheme as well, and Pie hoped he'd have cooled down by then. He could've used Kish's help as well; however, he doubted there would be any willingness to assist them with a scheme approved by and in the name of Deep Blue.

Over the past few weeks, ever since he'd encountered his moody teammate outside of the audience chamber, Kish had taken to behaving rather strangely. He still alternated between the polar opposites of moods with amazing rapidity, but these days he seemed keener, contemplative. Sometimes, when their paths crossed long enough for interaction, Pie caught a glimpse of an expression he couldn't read at all. It was the same mixture of muted anger and suspicion that he'd been wearing the day he'd dropped his strange comment about the crippled and the blind, but Pie couldn't tell whether it was meant for him, or something else.

His involvement with the Tokyo Bay strike had indeed kept him busy enough that his newly developed feelings regarding his teammate were pushed to the side, but they still lingered. While he neglected to acknowledge it, he always felt a small trill of excitement (just enough to cause that uncomfortable fluttering in his chest)  
when he ran into him and more than just a simple greeting was exchanged. The topic of Deep Blue always hung in the air, but Pie had learned that if he wanted to interact with Kish at all it was better not to mention their benefactor at all.

His thoughts returned to something he'd been trying very hard not to focus on - his run-in with that Mew Mew earlier. Lettuce. Every time he thought about their encounter, he tensed up - not in a pleasurable way. Her expression still bothered him. He didn't understand why, though. Humans were wretched creatures. They weren't supposed to express empathy, of all things. It made it so much harder to justify genocide when one considered the victims as anything other than parasites that deserved what was coming to them.

That was it. That look in her eyes, the soft, "I'm sorry," drenched in sincerity...it splashed her with a different coat of paint than the others. That girl wasn't a monster. That girl was a living, breathing, feeling person.

One that he had to kill, in order to assure the survival of his own people.

Pie's heart lurched, and he found himself running for the washroom.

Leaning over the sink, he retched into the basin, clutching his stomach. He hadn't eaten after their failed research mission earlier, so there was very little substance, but he heaved anyway, until his stomach twisted. He remained there, incapable of moving for a moment. In the small circular mirror, he caught sight of his face. Pale, unrecognizable. He didn't recognize that face, nor the thoughts that ran through his head. He felt as if a stranger was inhabiting his body, feeling things he didn't want to feel, things that would put him in serious danger of being unable to fulfill his duty to his people.

It was all Kish's fault - or was it? Perhaps the weak side of him had been lurking there, all along, waiting to jump out from behind the door and surprise him. It was the side of himself he'd buried, so long ago. It was no longer content to stay dead.

He splashed his face with cold water, rinsing the mess he made from the basin. Pie regarded himself in the mirror again. Slightly better. He still looked unnervingly haggard, though. And his empty stomach was now asserting itself, grumbling loudly.

"Alright," Pie said wearily, setting off for the kitchen. He hoped that their Tokyo Bay strike went well - he wasn't sure he could handle much more of this. Emotional turmoil was not his forte.

-oOo-

At the risk of running into someone - something he wanted to avoid - he took the long way, picking his way along the darkened hallway gingerly. He could see well-enough to avoid bumping into anything, and the absence of light helped alleviate the raging headache he now had.

Halfway there, his footsteps faltered, his ears pricking at an odd sound. It sounded like singing, or at least humming; he couldn't tell whether there were words from such a distance. It was a familiar tune, though - something he remembered from long ago, before they'd left for Earth.

His feet began to move of their own accord, carrying him towards the sound. He didn't know why it intrigued him so much, nor why he yearned to hear it more closely.

After a few feet, he stopped. The sound was coming from Kish's room.

It was a very bad idea to stop, he told himself. Just keep moving. This isn't what you came here for. Willpower was all it took, and he had a wealth of it. Pie turned to leave...and found that he was rooted to the spot. All the while, Kish continued humming, occasionally dropping a lyric or two - in their language, not the one they'd picked up for communicating with their enemies on Earth. Communication among themselves was a toss-up. He and Kish spoke the language perfectly, and could use either it or their own interchangeably Tart spoke it well enough to converse with the humans he targeted or interacted with, but there were some words he didn't know, and sometimes in the course of conversation with his teammates he reverted to his natural speech.

Being able to hear it more closely, now, Pie could identify where he'd heard the song before. It was a love song, of the sad, heartfelt variety that his younger, childish self would've wrinkled his nose at. Now that he was older, he could appreciate not only the lyrics, but how beautiful the song was. It spoke of waiting patiently, watching from the sidelines, content simply to be beside the object of one's affections.

*Two hands that never quite touch  
Fingers brush against each other  
In the course of passing*

He didn't realize he was drawing closer and closer to the slightly ajar door until he found himself standing in front of it, peering in with enough curiosity to spell certain doom for the unwitting cat.

*Souls that search for one another  
Never quite meeting, in the light of the day  
Or the mire of my dreams*

Kish was sitting on his bed, doing something with his hair. He could tell from the way the light gleamed against it that it was wet, as well as the fact that his teammate was, for some reason, missing his shirt. That little detail was far more distracting than anything else he'd encountered so far.

Now he could hear the song clearly. He couldn't remember hearing Kish sing before, although he'd known him for almost as long as he could remember. He actually had a rather nice singing voice; whether he realized it or not, there was a sense of longing in both his tone and the words of the song that went hand in hand.

*Even if we never meet face to face  
I am content just to see your smile  
Whether it's for me...*

"Or not," Pie finished, under his breath. Which was a feat considering that he'd stopped breathing a few minutes earlier.

Only a few feet away from him sat an individual that he'd both always seen and never seen. Kish had been his friend for a long time, and Pie had seen every mood he had to offer. But this...this was different. He had no doubt who he was thinking of while singing, but instead of the usual cat-and-mouse antics there was something authentic, in his voice, in the way he stared wistfully up at the stars through the skylight. Those words weren't for him.

But he'd have preferred it if they were.

It wasn't right to be invading his privacy like this, Pie knew. He needed to leave, and stop intruding on something that he probably wasn't supposed to see. Those words, the smile, the longing - none of it had anything to do with him. It was all for Ichigo, a girl who wouldn't give Kish the time of day. A girl that already appeared to love someone else.

He could open the door.

It was a crazy notion; it was something the old, controlled version of himself would've never done. He could cross the room in a few steps, hell, he could teleport right in front of him, probably startling the hell out of him but it didn't matter. He could force the words that he'd been swallowing for weeks, months, through lips that rebelled against him. He could just imagine those golden eyes, gleaming the way that had the night Kish lay at Death's door, proclaiming his misguided love for Ichigo.

Pie clenched his fists, unaware of the nails digging into his flesh. Self-control was everything. Self-control, willpower, sense of duty, whatever one wanted to call it. He had a job to do, he seemed to be the only one completely focused on it, Deep Blue was counting on him...the litany of reasons why he had to remain on the other side, had to be content with watching went on and on.

But, if he were honest with himself, and embraced the urges that he was losing the struggle against, he knew. He wanted, and what he wanted was only a few feet away from him. Soft hair and lovely eyes and unfettered emotion, passion that spilled everywhere and affected all of his actions, rashness, the more than slight sociopathic gleam in his eyes - everything that made Kish frustrating to be around. All the things that Pie could not claim. He wanted, ever so badly, and he still didn't understand why.

His hand, moving of its own volition, was reaching for the pad on the wall beside the door...

For the second time that day, he turned tail and fled the scene. Snatches of the song wove themselves in and out of his head, becoming tangled in a hopeless knot.

-oOo-

A.N.: Yeah, I figured after 7000 words and not being nearly done with what Emergence is supposed to accomplish in terms of the plot that I better cut it off right here and split it into three chapters. To anyone who's commented or is still reading, my apologies for this update taking so long. It definitely won't take as long next time. And I'll be nipping out with these author's notes as promised. They kinda break the flow, you know? At any rate, next chapter: more of Deep Blue and the crap he's doing on the side (that bastard), some fluff, Pie gets an angst break finally, a little twist of lime. I'm just running with this. :P


	6. Emergence, Stage 2

The first time it happened, Masaya Aoyama was at home alone, which made it all the more terrifying.

His adoptive parents were out together, probably reveling in being able to show each other genuine affection instead of the professional family pantomime the three of them engaged in together...

No, that wasn't right. A little voice that sounded unsurprisingly like Ichigo nagged at him whenever these thoughts surfaced as of late, chiding his cynicism. He knew they probably did love him, regardless of whether he was a perfect child or not - as much as adoptive parents could, at any rate. He just felt incapable of loving them.

Tapping the point of a freshly sharpened pencil against his notebook idly, Masaya allowed his mind to wander. He usually wasn't one for wasting time in such a fashion, but given that his traditionally dark thoughts had begun to stray to more pleasant memories of his time with Ichigo over the past few months, he really didn't mind the distraction. A few days prior he'd finally given in and accompanied his girlfriend to a new theme park that had opened the previous year. Theme parks weren't his deal (loud, noisy, and full of revelers that had no problem with littering the ground with their food containers and wrappers), but Ichigo was so excited that it made up for his discomfort. She squeaked on the faster rides, beamed when his good aim won her a lurid stuffed animal with heart-shaped spots, and fell asleep against his shoulder on the train ride home, still smiling and clutching the plushie as if it were Masaya himself. And for once, he felt completely and utterly happy.

It was a wonderful feeling.

Even now, sitting alone in his room with only the scratching of his pencil against paper as accompaniment Masaya felt that warmth radiating throughout his body. He wasn't sure if he loved his parents, but...maybe...

_Don't be a fool._

Masaya dropped his pencil and leapt to his feet so quickly that he upended the stack of textbooks he was using. "Who's there?"

His bedroom door remained shut, as did his windows; as far as he could tell, he was completely alone. Masaya frowned, relieved that there were no witnesses to his reaction. Perhaps he'd been studying too long, and it was time to take a break. He knelt to retrieve his pile of textbooks.

_Such weakness of spirit._

Masaya reared up, slamming the back of his head against his desk. That time he'd clearly heard a voice - seemingly within instead of from one of the empty corners of his room. Fighting against the panic rising in his chest he proceeded to inspect his room thoroughly, under the bed, within the depths of his closet; anywhere a prankster might be lurking, snickering at their attempts to unnerve him. His search turned up nothing, and Masaya collapsed on his bed, frustrated. He entertained the idea of simply calling the authorities, but he could just imagine the looks on his parents' faces when they arrived home to find their house crawling with officials scouring every nook and cranny for the source of what was probably a harmless, childish prank.

_So you are denying my existence?_

The words were even clearer now, and with them came a sudden, piercing headache that caused Masaya to cry out in pain, doubling over.

_You're an even sadder shell than I imagined._ The voice tearing through his consciousness possessed an icy quality that caused an involuntary shiver to course through the teenager's body, even as he clutched his aching head. _Pining away over these creatures that scorch this hallowed ground with their ignorance._

The sound reached a crescendo, as did the pain in his head, and a scream tore itself from Masaya's throat. Right before he (thankfully) faded into unconsciousness, he had a vision of the bluest eyes he'd ever seen, looking upon his with reproach...and then nothingness.

-oOo-

The night before the Tokyo Bay strike, Pie found himself unable to sleep.

It wasn't a surprising development. After all, the culmination of many long days of effort (and years of struggling), as well as the future of their people lay in the balance. Tomorrow could be the day when the Mew Mews, and the planet full of human lives _they_ fought to protect fell. Or at least the beginning of such. While he hoped at least two or three of the pests fell prey to the Chimera animal waiting just below the surface of the bay, the coming days would bring the greatest results as the rest of the country felt the effects of the toxin being leaked into its water supply.

The thoughts caused his stomach to lurch. Pie flinched at the sensation - this was not the correct reaction to the potential victory looming on the horizon. He _should_ have been overjoyed, determined...instead he simply felt anxious.

This wasn't entirely true.

If he were honest with himself, he also felt just the slightest amount of guilt, as well.

It was something Pie could not bring himself to understand. How could he feel guilty, of all things, over taking back what was rightfully theirs? And securing a stable home for his people in the process? All his friends, his family (what remained of it)...he could just imagine them, taking their first steps onto a planet their kind hadn't interacted with for millennia, inhaling the sweet air free of floating grains of sand, beneath a warm, welcoming sun. He could picture it so clearly, and yet...with less clarity, but enough to cause him to shudder, he could also picture the results of a successful attack on the city. After all, he'd seen desolation, and witnessed the blank eyes of those who'd lost everything.

Pie kicked his blankets aside. Empathy was one of the more useless aspects of himself that he'd been certain was good and buried. It's reemergence was troubling. War and empathy did not mix well.

-oOo-

Kish couldn't sleep either. Rather, he'd spent half the day asleep already, leaving him perfectly alert as he prowled the ship restlessly. He wandered with no real destination in mind, peeking in at the parasites in Pie's lab, across the ship's deserted bridge; he hovered briefly outside the audience chamber but moved on quickly as it unnerved him. For once he had quite a bit on his mind, and it wouldn't let him be.

Pie, in the end, had neglected to tell him the specifics of the Tokyo Bay strike, although he already knew the particulars from a regular regimen of lurking just outside of doors, in corners, and just plain eavesdropping when the opportunity arose. What his elder teammate _had_ divulged to him was merely that they would be carrying out a procedure involving releasing Chimera animals in the bay. The implication was that Kish's presence was not required or even desired, and that any interference would be unwelcome indeed. Kish was okay with these terms. He was less interested in the execution than he was in the aftermath.

Finally he grew weary of drifting and settled onto the couch in the common area, not bothering to activate any of the overhead lights.

Kish was terribly conflicted.

On one hand, he wished his teammates all the success in the world in their endeavors, regardless of how he felt about Deep Blue. If they succeeded in bringing about the fall of humanity, it would be wonderful news for their race - and specifically, the friends and relatives he'd left behind. That was, if Deep Blue's awakening was actually to their advantage or not. He had the feeling that the entity was keeping something from them, masked behind undeserved imperious behavior meant to cow them into submission. And it worked, for Pie and Tart, at least. He couldn't fathom what their reaction would be, if their 'god' betrayed them in the end. Of course, this was all speculation. It was quite possible that Deep Blue was simply a jerk.

The other hand involved a certain redhead whose life was potentially in danger.

If Tokyo and its human populace succumbed to widespread poisoning, panic, and economic disaster, what would happen to Ichigo? Surely she and her friends would continue searching for the Mew Aqua in hopes of performing a miracle, but how successful would their efforts be? They still had to eat and drink from the same water and food supply as their peers to sustain themselves. There seemed to be but one option to keep Ichigo alive and out of harm's way, and that was to abduct her in the chaos following the Tokyo Bay strike and remove her assistance from the equation altogether. In fact, doing so would actually be beneficial to his teammates - he doubted the rest of the Mew Mews would be able to fight as effectively without their leader.

Figuring out how to go about essentially imprisoning a teenage girl on their ship for an indeterminate amount of time was going to be much more problematic than actually snagging her.

Kish toyed with his sociopathic scheming in the dark for close to an hour before being interrupted. The overhead lights snapped on to reveal a disheveled, weary-looking Pie. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, and his face was fixed in a troubled, anxious expression. This was, of course, before he noticed Kish sitting there; almost instantaneously he assumed his stern, emotionless manner, as if nothing were worrying him at all.

"I assume I'm not interrupting anything of importance?" Pie asked, with an affected coldness that Kish could see right through. He merely shrugged in response, leaning back against the cushions with his arms folded over his chest.

"Do what you want. It's not like I own the place."

Pie seated himself on the opposite end of the couch, turning away from his companion. Neither he nor Kish spoke to each other, although for Kish, at least, it was very difficult not to do so. The tension hovering in the empty spaces around them was so thick it was nearly tangible, and Kish was certain he wasn't the only one aware of it. It was clear that something was bothering Pie, just as much as his own thoughts were nagging him; he wouldn't admit it out loud but beneath his concerns involving Ichigo he was also concerned with how strangely Pie had been behaving, as well. He caught Pie glancing over at him in what he probably judged to be a clandestine manner, further lending weight to his suspicions. Kish let out a loud, heavy sigh; their inability to communicate as of late was tiring.

"Worried about tomorrow?" He remarked casually. Pie hesitated for a brief moment before responding.

"Somewhat. It will be a delicate operati-"

Kish groaned. "You know, you can talk to me like a normal person. I'm not Deep Blue."

Pie acknowledged the truth of the statement with a distracted nod. "Very well. I am merely concerned with the outcome of tomorrow's venture, given that..."

"Pie." Kish rolled his eyes, turning his full attention to his teammate. "Just talk. This isn't a progress report."

"Yes. I'm worried." Pie sighed. The bile that had risen in the back of his throat earlier burned in the pit of his stomach. "This could be our last chance, Kish."

"I see." Kish leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms above his head. "So what happens if you fail? I mean, I'm already condemned, so it doesn't mean anything to me, but what happens to _you?"_

"I don't know." The vulnerability in Pie's admission caused Kish's head to snap up, all tension dissolving in an instant. The older Earthian was hunched over, arms wrapped around his stomach as if he were in pain. Pie looked genuinely distressed, and Kish felt the sudden urge to go to him. They weren't big on overt displays of affection, but for the moment...just for one moment...

Kish sat on his hands.

"Deep Blue is frustrated with our lack of progress. At any moment, he could withdraw his favor, and then..." Pie trailed off, shuddering involuntarily. "We'd be forced to return empty-handed."

"Why? We've got some of the Mew Aqua already. Can't we just find the rest and take it home with us?"

"Because that's not our home, Kish!" Pie snapped. "This is." The words sounded like a lie, and he felt compelled to say them once more if only to convince himself. "This..."

Kish looked at him expectantly, but Pie fell silent, lost in his own confusing thoughts. This was home. But it was also _their _home. But they were the enemy. But the three of them, Pie, Kish, Tart...they'd never lived on Earth. They'd been born on a barren planet too wretched to name.

When it all came down to it, perhaps they didn't even have a home.

Regaining his composure, Pie continued, as if his momentary lapse in faith had never happened. "This is our home, to purge and protect of our own accord. This is the planet our ancestors before us dreamed of returning to, the one all the old songs and stories were sung of. Kish." Pie's voice cracked, rather embarrassingly, but he paid it no mind; if he were to cease talking, he might stop believing his own words. "We can't give up."

The resulting silence was overwhelming. Instead of staring at his lap, Kish stared directly at his companion; Pie noticed his eyes flickering back and forth, as if he were studying his features. Pie returned the gesture. It was the first time he'd spent such a long time actually making eye contact with Kish in months, and it surprised him just how much of the younger Earthian's face he'd committed to memory. Kish's expression was deliberately blank, disconnected from the situation altogether, but beneath that facade there seemed to be a well of anxiety, from the hints of dark semi-circles beneath bright eyes, to the slight curve of his lips into a frown. There were oh, so many things that Pie was keeping from him...but perhaps there were things Kish was keeping from him, as well.

"Pie?"

Pie jumped in his seat, realizing he'd been staring a little too hard. Kish's features had now shifted into an expression of concern. "It's nothing," he lied, finally bringing himself to look away, gazing at the stars visible through the glass ceiling above their heads.

Kish cleared his throat before speaking; he legitimately sounded regretful instead of the usual mocking tone he assumed. "Pie...I can't help you. I don't trust him."

The admission did not come as a surprise to Pie; he'd been long aware of Kish's distrust of Deep Blue following his "accident" the previous winter, but hearing him actually voice it, without a hint of accusation in his voice...well, he wasn't quite sure what to think. So Pie said nothing at all, simply nodding and continuing to look at the stars. Of all the things in his life that persisted on shifting and changing shape before his eyes, at least they were constant.

"That...is fine," he said, finally. "And as much as I would like to understand so I can address the situation, I respect you too much to force you to discuss it if you do not wish to."

Kish blinked. That was unexpected. "Oh?"

Pie glanced down at him, the faint hint of a smile on his face. "Did I say something odd?"

"You respect me?" Kish snorted, folding his arms over his chest. "Could've fooled me."

Pie shrugged. "Take it as you will, but regardless of our differences in opinion, you are resourceful and passionate in regards to your goals and beliefs, and even though they often conflict with mine those are still qualities I can respect."

For the first time since he'd found himself enamored of his teammate, Pie had the luxury of seeing _Kish_ floored for once. The younger boy opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again, eying him cautiously. Pie's composure wavered ever so slightly, for a fraction of a second: confused Kish was even more adorable than angry Kish._ "__Are you hearing yourself? Adorable? Really?"_

After a minute or two Kish smiled himself, somewhat softer than his usual smirk. "I see. Well, then. Respect is a pretty formal word, so I can't really return the sentiment."

"As expected," Pie deadpanned.

Kish's smile widened into his trademark expression, and he winked out of existence only to reappear right in front of Pie, close enough for Pie to feel his breath warming his skin as Kish crooned, somewhat lewdly, "But you are kinda cute."

Pie's eyes widened, and he attempted to put distance between himself and his teammate before he did something regrettable (like leaning forward, oh, no); it took a minute for him to remember he was seated. The expression of horror plastered across his now reddened face was too much for Kish, and he bowled over in mid-air, clutching his stomach and laughing uproariously. "That'll never get old!"

Pie groaned, shoving him away. "Are you even capable of engaging in serious conversation?"

Kish's laughter began to cease, and he looked up at Pie in that carefree, happy manner that came so rarely as of late. "Sometimes."

A pang lanced through Pie's heart. _"__I want to see you smile like this all the time."_ Overcome by exhaustion, and not entirely in control of his actions, Pie ventured, in a shamefully uncertain voice, "Kish?"

"Hm?" Kish met his eye, and a brief moment passed between them in which Pie struggled to force the words on the tip of his tongue back down his throat, and Kish strained to hear them, intrigued by the unfamiliar tone in his teammate's generally flat, confident voice. And then it was gone, Pie's mask covering up whatever it was he'd momentarily exposed, and he stood up and turned to leave, glancing back at Kish blankly. "It's nothing. Good night."

Kish watched him go, an equally unfamiliar hesitation in his voice as he returned the sentiment. "Good night."

-oOo-

With a rediscovery of his capacity for emotion came the unwelcome physical sensation of severe anxiety, and for a minute as he hovered high above the Tokyo Bay Pie regretted ever laying eyes on Kish.

Deep within the bay, his creation slumbered, nearly ready to awaken and set the utter demise of the Mew Mews and the rest of their wretched race into play. The Chimera's development would hit 100% within the hour, and it couldn't have come sooner: as expected, the two men that assisted the nuisances (Shirogane and Keiichiro, from his observations), had finally detected the presence of _something_ in the bay, and below him he could see the girls and their sponsors preparing two speedboats to be taken out into the bay to survey the area. Of course, he was prepared - he'd spent one of the previous nights that week 'breeding' an incredibly large amount of aquatic Chimeras that he planned to release en mass in order to keep the disruptive Mew Mews occupied while the Chimera finalized. He'd sent Tart to _clandestinely _keep a close watch on the Mew Mews from the docks, although he was well aware of the futility of his orders. It was no matter - Tart's presence was a secondary distraction; he didn't need any assistance with the main event itself.

Pie gazed over the scene impassively, although his stomach roiled in the most unpleasant fashion. He knew that a good part of it was apprehension involving the success of the mission...

...the rest was guilt.

Clenching his fists hard enough for his short nails to dig into his palms, Pie winked out of existence, reappearing below the surface of the Tokyo Bay beside his creation. The massive Chimera's eyes were closed, her body clad in a black leotard for modesty, head adorned with a golden crown and webbed arms folded across her chest. Her head was bowed, as if in silent prayer to Deep Blue, the way Pie had so often in the days before his life gained the note of uncertainty that had begun to complicate things.

"All our hopes rest with you," Pie whispered, offering up a prayer of his own. The gesture felt slightly foreign, and Pie swallowed a brief surge of panic. His faith wasn't wavering. It couldn't be.

A flash of movement from above the surface caught his eye; Pie allowed himself to drift closer to get a look at the disturbance. An oddly shaped robotic creature with an inefficient design hovered directly above the Cholera animal. He recognized it as the robot the Mew Mews used as surveillance. "We can't have that, can we?" he murmured to himself.

Masha never saw it coming. Pie teleported behind the tiny creature, sending a jolt of energy arching through it with his fan. The robot shrieked as it fell, sinking beneath the surface of the bay. Pie watched for a few minutes to make sure it didn't resurface before returning to his prior position.

Nothing was going to interfere with his plans this time.

-oOo-

Boredom was not a new experience for Kish.

Boredom sprinkled with anxiety was, though.

Pie and Tart had vanished, off enacting whatever plan it was that had kept Pie occupied and on edge for the past couple of weeks. No doubt their progress was being monitored and probably on display in Pie's lab, but Kish's mind was most certainly not on a mission he wasn't involved in.

Perhaps.

For well over an hour, he'd been training to keep his mind from focusing too fully on that idea lodged between his brain and his skull. His arms were beginning to hurt, slightly, and even still his sai sung as they parted the empty air in defensive and offensive stances.

In his mind, the battle with the Blue Knight that had brought him to his knees. Inchigo's horrified expression, at the violence unfolding before her. But mostly...contempt. It was _contempt_, there, in her beautiful eyes. He hadn't mistaken it. In fact, he'd known all along that what had presented itself as a typical game of hard to get between the sexes was really cat and mouse, tinged by his sociopathic tendencies.

But was that all?

Kish's left shoulder erupted into a dull ache; he ignored the spasm, sai clicking together in a position intended to parry the thrust of a sword. Both hands together, forming a barrier. Drop low, and push forward.

Even though Indigo did not love him, what he felt _had_ to be love. The willingness to sacrifice his position, his way of life, his _power_, because when he'd stood tall in Deep Blue's estimation, he had _power_. Not just for a pretty face, but those eyes, burning with determination, with an unwavering will to protect those she loved. That passion, that dedication.

Hands dropped to both sides, arms extended and sai angled to pierce the enemy's sides simultaneously, likely hitting vitals along the way and effectively inflicting a fatal wound.

Should Pie and Tart succeed, they would bring Tokyo to its knees. The damage would spread, like wildfire, carried along on the water and tainting every shore it touched with death. And the Mew Mews would likely be among the first, dying dishonorable deaths far from the battlefield, hunched over in the own homes as their bodies rebelled against them.

Kish's mind had run completely blank. He couldn't focus on anything else. His sai slipped from his grip and clattered to the floor of the ship. His breaths came fast and shallow in his chest.

_Ichigo, clutching her stomach in pain, her face slick with perspiration, wondering why, what's happening, as her body slowly failed on her one system at a time and I can't watch because she's beautiful and strong and I want her-_

With a scream of frustration Kish retrieved his weapons and sent one soaring into the wall, leaving a long, ugly gash in the inner wall of the ship. Pie was going to hate it. Kish did not care.

The terrible idea he'd been rolling around in his head for the better part of two days finally took root, and with a grim smile he stored his weapons in their subspace pocket and departed the ship without another thought.

-oOo-

Pie was not used to their schemes working out in their favor.

As expected, two of the Mew Mews (clad in scuba gear) had breached the perimeter of the area reserved for his Chimera animal, inadvertently releasing the _swarm _of smaller aquatic Chimera animals (plain fish, with razor sharp teeth that did not belong in their mouths). The swarm appeared to have them on the run in their speedboats, incapable of locating an attack that would neutralize a larger amount of the creatures than the few their attacks were capable of.

And then Tart arrived to exchange words with them, providing the additional distraction he'd desired.

Satisfied with their progress, Pie returned to the Chimera's side; she was scheduled to awaken at any time now. Her eyes were partially open. For such a large, dangerous creature, she was rather beautiful, and Pie felt a swell of pride at his handiwork.

The Chimera animal's eyes fluttered open fully, the fins adorning the sides of her head as auditory receptors erecting. She lifted her head from her long, silent prayer, and her lips parted to emit an unearthly noise.

The sound of an approaching speedboat caught Pie's attention; he'd failed to notice that the two groups had split up and one was nearly upon the current device still active in the bay.

The Chimera animal noticed the movement above her and instantly reacted, letting out another feral cry before breaching the surface directly in the path of the boat, capsizing it and sending its inhabitants (the green-haired Mew, Lettuce, and the young man with blonde hair, Shirogane) into the cold depths of the Tokyo Bay. Pie found himself tumbling head over heels in the water as well, thrown by the powerful undertow caused by such a large creature moving so swiftly.

Tracking events had been much easier before the action started, and now between the water in his ears and the screeching of the Chimera, Pie could barely tell what end was up and what end was down. A flash of blonde hair indicated that Shirogane was sinking; perhaps he'd been knocked unconscious. Lettuce was beside herself, her voice odd yet clear in the rushing waves. Her animal was the finless porpoise, was it not? No wonder she had no trouble swimming or breathing without assistance. Pie had worked up a small device that allowed him to remain beneath for short periods of time, but Lettuce appeared to be facing no difficulties breathing underwater. She shrieked something unintelligible at the Chimera, and then began swimming frantically for the blonde man.

Pie recalled the expression of pity on her face, that day in the park earlier that week.

_"No. This ends here."_

Pie darted into her path, producing a medium-sized fan and slashing it before him, channeling an attack. A bolt of energy, converted into a jet stream of water, threw Lettuce off balance, hitting her squarely in the chest. The shot wasn't meant to kill her, nor did it seem to hurt much, but it did stop her dead in her tracks. The girl's green eyes were wide with terror as she faced Pie. "I don't have time to fight you right now!" she yelled. "I have to get to Shirogane-san!"

"He faces a better death beneath the waves," Pie said coldly, readying the fan for another attack. Lettuce tensed. The same look of pity in her eyes, empathy, useless emotions. Pie hated her, and her kind.

"I don't want to fight you." The words were met with another blast from his fan, this time actually causing her to cry out.

"I'm not giving you any other option." Pie sent another jet stream, followed by another - Lettuce actually found herself on the defensive, dodging his attacks with a speed that he had to admit was rather impressive. "Your kind is poison. You've infected this planet for too long. You must be purged."

The words sounded foreign on his tongue, although he didn't fully understand why - these were his feelings, spat in the face of his enemy. He'd spent so very long dreaming of their success, of crushing the annoyances that stood in his way beneath his heel; were these not the very words he'd intended to say?

They felt foreign because he wasn't entirely sure he meant them any longer.

Lettuce finally resorted to producing her castanets, although she still refused to attack him. "I don't want to fight you! If only we could talk to each other, maybe we could come to an agreement. But please, please, just let me save Shirogane-san!" she begged, the plea in her voice striking him at his core. Pie faltered for a brief moment; the tone of her voice, the anguish in her eyes; it was very familiar. Probably because it was what he'd felt, seeing an injured Kish fall before him with his wounds having opened once more.

_"Oh, Deep Blue, help me. I don't know myself anymore."_

Against his better judgement, Pie ceased his barrage momentarily. "Is he important to you?" he asked quietly.

Lettuce nodded. She was close to tears, he could tell, wringing her hands. "Yes, he is."

The curse on the tip of his tongue stayed put, although it took every ounce of self-control to keep his fan lowered. "Then go."

Lettuce's face lit up with gratitude, although she wasted no time in shooting past Pie into the depths of the bay where the light began to fade. Pie watched her go, the guilt almost overwhelming him. He'd let her go _again_, when he could've been rid of both of them by simply defeating her and preventing her from saving the other nuisance. Again, because of those eyes, full of pity, and that voice that reminded him of his own, begging for Kish's life.

Perhaps she would fail to save him, and he would be redeemed. And did the lives of two humans even matter in the face of the success they were guaranteed? The giant Chimera animal had taken position already, beginning to raise her webbed arms to poison the bay. Even if they survived, the rest of Tokyo would fall. The guilt began to subside, somewhat; he was still overwhelmed, by a jumble of emotions he could make little sense of.

Pie was not used to their schemes working out in their favor.

At that moment, a blinding light erupted from beneath him, a wave of energy coursing through his body as well as the Chimera's. He recognized it, in but an instant.

"No." Pie whispered.

The Chimera shrieked, clutching at her body; she began to crumble before his very eyes, taking his hopes with her. "No!" Pie yelled, his mind running a mile a minute, searching for anything he could do to halt the Mew Aqua destroying his creation. But it was too late. In what seemed like only a few seconds, the Chimera animal vanished, her useless toxic webbing fading away into dust before even being activated.

The sense of despair that settled on Pie in that moment was far more powerful than anything else he'd ever felt.

For the second time that week, Pie turned tail and fled.


	7. Emergence, Final Stage

AN: Yeah, I said I wouldn't do author's notes prior to chapters. I lied! So, first off, my apologies in taking forever to update this fic. I am grateful to anyone still reading it, especially with as mediocre as the last chapter was. I had the worst time writing it, partially due to having lost interest in the anime at some point, as well as being stressed out with IRL issues. Hopefully this chapter doesn't disappoint, and the ending is a turning point from the deep pit of ANGST I have dug for poor Pie and Kish. :D

-oOo-

-oOo-

Waiting in the shadows for a girl to walk by with the intent of kidnapping her and taking her to live as what essentially counted as a prisoner of war upon a vessel in space that was barely big enough for the three people that lived there already was not a good idea. Kish was well aware of this, and he'd been telling the little voice in his head nagging at him to _give up and go home they failed so she's safe now_ to go do unpleasant things to itself for close to an hour.

He also wasn't quite sure about the manic energy infesting his bones and driving him to keep moving; he suspected it was a side effect of being lovesick sprinkled liberally with extreme anxiety.

He'd witnessed, from his vantage point, the majority of the Tokyo Bay strike. He'd watched the Mew Mews turn tail and run from the massive swarm of Chimera animals, he'd (gleefully) seen Tart get blasted out of the air for being terribly obnoxious, and he'd gazed in brief awe as Pie's weapon broke the surface before being mysteriously vanquished by a combination of brilliant light blooming up from beneath the waves and Ichigo's neutralization attack. Tart, who'd failed to notice him nearby, had thrown a miniature tantrum at the outcome before disappearing entirely; he'd only glimpsed Pie for a moment prior to the Chimera awakening.

Kish honestly wasn't sure if what he felt was relief at his teammates' crushing defeat, or a touch of sympathy for their plight. Perhaps a little of both.

At any rate, the great Tokyo Bay strike that Pie had been playing up for weeks as the culmination of their struggles appeared to have been a critical failure, and anticlimactic to boot. After Pie and Tart vanished, probably back to the ship to deliver the bad news to Deep Blue and sulk, respectively, Kish had found himself hanging back to see if anything of interest would happen.

Nothing did.

The girls, thoroughly soaked and clearly tired, convened with their mentors for awhile in a flurry of activity (there appeared to be some issue involving Lettuce and the blonde man whose name Kish couldn't recall, but his attention was elsewhere anyway) before departing half an hour later, when Pudding's outrageous sneezing could no longer be ignored. Lettuce and Pudding, Zakuro and Mint, and Ichigo...all alone, waving goodbye at her teammates before heading home in a different direction.

If only he could be so lucky always.

It was at this frustrating crossroads that Kish now found himself, tailing Ichigo at a distance while running through his options in his head; that there was no immediate danger, no visible threat he could claim to be protecting her from, taking her _for her own good_...none of this bode well for his ability to avoid using force, and with Pie and Tart moping about keeping her on the ship was a near impossibility.

At what point had this seemed like a good idea?

Kish was thoughtful and intelligent beyond what he normally chose to regale the world with, but at heart he was a creature of passion and impulse. It was this that he claimed as an excuse for why, as Ichigo walked past an alley, humming to herself in her beautiful voice, he chose to teleport beside her and drag her into it.

Ichigo reacted the same way any girl being dragged into a deserted alley would. "What are you doing Kish?" she screamed, wrenching against the arm wrapped around her waist.

Kish continued to not handle the situation well as he usually did when Ichigo was involved, crooning into her ear in a husky, seductive purr, "I've missed you, kitty cat." Whether the flush that colored Ichigo's face was born of embarrassment or desire was unknown, but its presence only spurred Kish on, shifting the struggling girl in his arms so that they were face to face, hip to hip. There HAD been a plan, somewhere along the way, but with Ichigo _so close_ after _so long_ he was having trouble remembering it.

"Let _go_," Ichigo hissed.

"Why?" Kish chuckled, pulling her closer, her body flush against his. "You seem to be enjoying it."

Ichigo's inflamed cheeks reddened further, making Kish laugh. She was beautiful at all times, but so much more when enraged, when she insulted him, playing hard to get. "And look, we're all alone..." Ichigo's eyes widened in near panic as he leaned forward, clearly intent on stealing another kiss; Kish hesitated for only a moment before continuing with his trajectory, a hand straying up to her lovely hair...that moment was all Ichigo needed.

With a speed born of both anger and her enhanced reflexes, she managed to wrench one of her hands free from the grip Kish had around her midsection and proceeded to use it to deliver the harshest slap in the face Kish had ever received.

Well, that was unexpected.

Kish was either smart enough to let go or too stunned to keep ahold of her.

"I hate you!" Ichigo shrieked, stumbling back against one of the alley's brick walls. The sound echoed throughout the alley, _I hate you, I hate you._ "I've had enough, Kish. I've had enough."

Kish's hand strayed up to rub at his cheek; the blow _stung_ but not nearly as much as the look in Ichigo's eyes. Thus far he'd managed to convince himself that her denial and protestations were merely an act, either for her teammates or to alleviate some inner guilt at her desire to fraternize with the enemy. Even when she was harsh, even when she said she hated him, he could imagine that it was all part of whatever game they were playing, a cat and a very catlike mouse. Ichigo Momomiya now stood before him, her eyes blazing and cold, and deep within Kish, something _finally_ broke.

He suspected it was his heart.

"I was just..." Words failed him in the face of her contempt; somehow, he'd never imagined the possibility that maybe she didn't secretly like him after all. "Ichigo, I-"

"No!" Something had broken within Ichigo as well, and even as she levied rage upon him tears worked their way out of the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. "I'm tired of this! I love Aoyama-kun! You keep grabbing me, touching me like there's something there. There isn't." Ichigo wiped her eyes with her sleeve, the expression on her face something sad and terrible. "I don't like you, Kish. We aren't even friends."

"Oh." Kish stood frozen in place, incapable of processing how badly this was going. As worst case scenarios went, it was completely off the charts. "But I love _you_. Since I first met you, I..." _Loved you. Wanted you beside me. Wanted your hand in mine, your lips against my skin and I've dreamed about you-_

"No you don't." Ichigo's voice was bitter, in-between sniffling. "If you did, you'd take no for an answer. But you never do."

An awkward, painful silence rose in the alley between the two of them, broken only by Ichigo's sniffles. Kish simply stared at her, unable to form the words needed to deny her claim, and Ichigo averted her gaze. After a few minutes, the poor girl's strength flagged, both from emotional and physical fatigue. With a whispered "I'm sorry" Ichigo Momomiya turned on her heels and ran, leaving Kish staring after her, at the spot where she'd stood moments before, long after her footsteps tapered off.

And then his legs refused to hold him any longer, sending him to the ground in an ungainly manner that would have been embarrassing had he any mind to be so.

Kish was crying. He wasn't sure when the tears began, but now that they were there, he _couldn't_ swallow them once more. He wrapped his arms around his midsection, hugging himself, and cried among the remnants of a dream he'd never quite given up on until now.

-oOo-

When he finally made it back to the ship, the shadows in the alley having lengthened to an unnerving length as the sun dipped below the horizon, Kish was in one of the worst moods he could remember having in ages.

He felt lightheaded after crying for nearly an hour, and he now staggered beneath the weight of a monstrous headache. Levitating himself took too much effort, so he clung to the wall with one hand, making his way down the hallway towards the kitchen. Thankfully he ran into neither Pie nor Tart, and he thanked the powers that were for it. He doubted he could have handled seeing either of them without lashing out, and right now he just felt _violent_.

The first thing to fall prey to Kish's foul mood were a couple of earthenware cups on the table. These he lifted, one after the other, and allowed them to smash against the tiles with a satisfying crunch. Surveying the damage with a nod, Kish tackled their supplies, flinging boxes with abandon. There were a lot of appropriated human foods, from Tart's cereal to cans of liquid, two or three of which splashed open upon contact with the floor. The sight of them reminded him of something, and with a half-cocked grin Kish summoned the energy to reappear in Pie's lab.

He rummaged around for awhile carelessly, too distraught to care about replacing items after moving them. Finally he found what he was looking for: a large glass bottle of deep red liquid.

_"An alcoholic beverage composed of fermented grapes, although other fruit can be used as well. Leads to impaired judgment and dehydration. I do wish you would monitor what you allow Tart to steal, Kish."_

Good thing he already had impaired judgment; it was rather hard to go downhill from rock bottom.

-oOo-

When Pie woke up, he experienced a brief moment of panic at not recognizing his surroundings. He was curled up in a fetal position on the floor; after a minute or two he realized he was in one of the unused storerooms on the ship. Sitting up, he rubbed at his eyes blearily, wondering how much time had passed. He remembered arriving on the ship earlier after the disaster, hesitating outside of Deep Blue's chamber for all of five seconds before running for the storeroom and shutting himself inside, in the dark, huddled on the floor trying to still the panic flowing through him, loosening the contents of his stomach. He didn't know how to report their failure to Deep Blue, so he simply shoved the task from his mind, falling into a dreamless slumber with his hands still clenching his forearms while he trembled in the throes of what legitimately counted as an anxiety attack.

And now the memories of earlier, capped with both sharp regret and an odd, shameful touch of relief washed over him, and Pie groaned, leaning forward with his face in his hands. Lettuce, with her brilliant green eyes trained on him, those fluctuations of _pity_ in them.

"You should have killed her," Pie muttered to himself, with no small amount of self-loathing, and it was _true_. This time it was not Tart or Kish interfering, but his own weakness that brought them down.

His mouth was unpleasantly dry, and Pie also realized that he hadn't eaten since the day before. He wasn't hungry, necessarily, but a glass of crisp, cool water would be nice.

Having had enough of walking that day (and no longer desiring the clarity it usually brought him) he opted to simply teleport to the kitchen, landing amidst a mess of scattered boxes, broken cups, spilled beverages, and smashed fruit littering the floor.

Tart sat at the table among the clutter, morosely working his way through a box of cereal with his bare hands.

Pie's mouth dropped open.

Before he could blow up entirely, Tart held up a hand to halt the explosion. "Id washn't me," he explained through a mouthful of cereal, finally swallowing. "Really. It was Kish. He's being really weird today."

Pie swallowed, licking his lips contemplatively. "I see."

"Yeah, he was in here complaining about Ichigo or something." Tart reached into the box for another handful of cereal. Another box lay empty beside his chair, and even in his silent irritation Pie felt a twinge of camaraderie for his younger charge. He dealt with his troubles by having panic attacks in dark storerooms, and Tart gorged himself on cereal, because what else would a child do?

_"Wreck the kitchen, like Kish,"_ his mind supplied helpfully, and Pie cringed. As upset as he was over the day's events, he couldn't just let this go. "Where is he?"

"I think he's in his room." Tart grinned, his tiny fangs gleaming. "Are you going to put him in time out? I think you should put him in time out."

"I am going to inform him that this is unacceptable behavior and direct him in correcting the issue," Pie said, flatly.

"That's boring." Tart rolled his eyes. "Why am I the only one that gets grounded around here?"

"Because you're still a child under my care and it's a suitable punishment for your age." Pie couldn't suppress his slight smile at Tart's crestfallen expression. "However, given your increasing abilities and decrease in your tendency to disobey orders, perhaps I shall rethink whether it is still appropriate."

Tart sighed. "That's a lot of big words, so I'm just going to take the compliments and ignore the rest."

Pie left him to his devices, starting on a third box of cereal. He had a feeling it would come back to haunt him later that night in the infirmary with a raging tummy ache.

-oOo-

He _did_ walk to Kish's room instead of teleporting, reasoning that he needed the time to figure out what to say to him. Kish didn't resort to tantrums very often, and usually he only created messes fueled by frustration within his own personal space. That he was apparently driven to acting out in a shared area meant something had happened, and apparently it involved Ichigo.

Pie let out a heavy sigh. Whatever it was driving himself, Kish, Ichigo, and Lettuce, youthful hormones or a lack of restraint in the expression of their emotions - whatever it was was nothing but _trouble_, and tonight he was strained enough to try once more to shake some sense into his _teammate _and _friend_ because that's what Kish was to him, and nothing more. At least right now, en route to his room to bawl him out over wasting food in such a ridiculous manner.

Kish's door wasn't shut completely, and Pie wasn't in the mood for being polite, so he barged right in, announcing his arrival as he entered. "Kish-"

The sight that greeted him was far worse than the mess in the kitchen, and all anger completely vanished. Kish sat on the floor, leaning against his bed with two empty wine bottles beside him. He turned to look at Pie, and it was clear that he was responsible for the refuse. His hair was disheveled, golden eyes bloodshot, and he was _impossibly_ inebriated, leveling a glazed, silly grin at Pie. "Hi," he said, with an unnerving giggle. "I'd offer you a drink but I drank it already."

Pie groaned, walking over to him and retrieving one of the empty bottles. "You drank all of them? I put these away so you and Tart wouldn't bother them! How did you even know where they were?"

Kish hiccupped. "I went on a treasure hunt. I found it!"

Pie massaged the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Might I ask what compelled you to do this?"

Kish laughed, a broken, bitter sound that contrasted with the drunken smile on his face. "Love, Pie. Love is stupid, and stuff." He poked at the other discarded bottle, tapping his nails against the glass idly. "She hates me, and that hurts, because I love her, and it doesn't matter."

Pie sighed again, moving to slide the door shut, and then sitting down beside Kish, who did not appear to have the motor skills to move. "Ichigo?"

"Yeah."

Kish fell silent for a minute, and Pie was aware of his heart rate picking up, not only in response to physical proximity but the desire to pull Kish into his arms. The pain in his voice pained _Pie_, and although he could not share the same sentiment towards the leader of the Mew Mews he most certainly understood it. Kish was right, about one thing: love was stupid, and stuff.

"I wanted to save her, from whatever you guys were going to do to the bay, and then I messed up somehow. She said 'I hate you'. And she meant it, she's not just playing hard to get or anything. She _hates_ me, Pie."

"She _is_ our enemy," Pie reminded him gently, although the word caused him to briefly remember sympathetic green eyes in the park. "Perhaps it's for the best. At some point, we would have had to face her."

"Pie, it _hurts." _Kish leaned against him, the point of contact sending a shudder throughout Pie's body that Kish was thankfully too drunk to notice. "Haven't you ever felt this before? It's actual pain. No, look." He grabbed Pie's hand, also failing to notice how his elder's face flushed in response, and pressed it against his chest. "This hurts. I don't know how to make it go away."

Pie was stunned into silence, his palm flat against Kish's chest and his heartbeat rumbling within it. Kish was gripping his wrist tightly, a note of desperation in the gesture. "Kish...I don't..."

Kish leaned forward, his eyes bright with unshed tears, and pressed his lips against Pie's in a fierce, equally desperate kiss that caused his mind to bottom out altogether. He had just enough presence of mind to register that it was actually his first _real_ kiss, the few insignificant flirtations of his childhood being _nothing_ compared to this.

Kish moved away, allowing Pie to breathe for a brief moment before attacking him once more, releasing his hold on his wrist and forcibly shoving him back against the bed, swiftly straddling his midsection and pinning him in place with a strength that Pie could barely believe he still had in the state he was in. He could still push him off, shove him _away_ but he'd gone limp beneath his touch, with Kish's mouth jammed against his and the sour-sweet scent of wine on his breath. When Kish pulled away again it took all of Pie's self-control to keep himself from seizing him and dragging him forward. Kish's face was flushed as well, his pupils large and dilated and Pie squirmed beneath him as his lower half woke up and realized just what the pressure in his lap was. Thank Deep Blue for self-control.

"Be my Ichigo," Kish whispered, gripping Pie's shoulders and staring up at him with a needy expression that further stirred the gingery heat in Pie's stomach. "Please."

Pie's mouth had run dry (_"Never did get that glass of water, did you?"_) and the protest that should have been on the tip of his tongue at being reduced to a rebound, to a distraction from Kish's own sadness wasn't present. Kish was kissing him, intoxicated and trembling with desire in his lap, and gods was it difficult to say "no" to something he'd dreamed about in baser moments. "You're drunk, you don't mean that-" And he was cut short by Kish capturing his lips once more, and _oh gods was that his tongue_ and Pie reached for his shoulders to push him away so why was he pulling him _closer, his hands tracing nonsense patterns on his back and sliding along his spine straying lower than they should _and then Kish _moaned_ into the kiss, arching his back against Pie's touch like a cat.

"I love you," Kish breathed, the words harsh and jagged and raw and meant for someone else but Pie could take that, if it would comfort _his teammate that he was in love with_ because now that he had a lapful of Kish pressed against a completely aware bulge within his pants and his hands had somehow found their way beneath Kish's shirt he could come clean with himself. He loved Kish, and Kish loved Ichigo, and it was all so very _wrong_ but he was powerless to stop it because love was stupid, so very stupid. "I love you, I love you." He followed up the statement with an even deeper kiss that left Pie reeling, and finally he returned the gesture wholeheartedly, inexperienced tongue dueling with Kish's until they were forced to part momentarily, Kish breathing heavily, his face flushed a lovely pink and Pie _actively _resisting the urge to reverse their positions and make good on a few months of thoughts he shouldn't have been having, although _"You should stop, you really should"_ insisted on running through his head on repeat. He didn't want to.

Pie opened his mouth to attempt to protest once more, but what came out instead of something sensible was a heavy "You're beautiful" because Kish _was_ beautiful, even when he was insufferable, and because in light of everything else happening the truth would be absorbed so readily into the lie they were weaving with their bodies so why not? Kish accepted the comment graciously, allowing Pie to loosen the ties in his hair so he could run his hands through it, soft and silky against his fingers.

Kish trailed a line of light kisses along his neck, occasionally releasing stray 'I love you's into his flesh. Pie found that between the two of them Kish made a far better Ichigo, as he outright _mewled _much like a kitten whenever Pie traced the length of his spine with his fingertips, applying just enough pressure to feel the bone beneath. He refrained from responding too readily, both emotionally overwhelmed and leery of possibly taking advantage of Kish, who would never drink again if he had anything to do with it. And yet, it was so very difficult to rein himself in, when Kish gleefully lowered his left hand to rest on his crotch, the other entangled in his hair keeping Pie from avoiding the assault on his mouth, had he been inclined to.

"I love you too." The words escaped Pie in a gasp, unbidden and without permission; they hung heavy in the air as Kish paused, leaning back and staring at Pie thoughtfully. His lips curved into a soft, sad smile, and he shook his head.

"No, you don't." He halted Pie's attempts to correct him, to tell him that _he, _Pie, loved him, not the Ichigo surrogate he was posing as, with another passionate kiss. "You don't, but I wish you did."

The words hurt, of course, gripping Pie's poor overwhelmed heart like a vice but that seemed to be a running theme for the night. He filed the wound away for later, allowing himself to be distracted by Kish's lips and roving hands once more. Honesty be damned.

Pie lost track of time, the entirety of his being consumed by the very thing he'd been wanting since he realized how gone he was the year before. Being slowed by intoxication was not a deterrent for Kish, who seemed intent on leaving his mark on every inch of exposed flesh, alternately whispering his affections and giggling at Pie's halting efforts at returning them. He found himself laying back with his eyes closed, Kish's lips and tongue flickering over his collarbone while Pie bit his lower lip lightly.

Just as he could take Kish's presence no longer, as the stretched out thread of his self-control snapped and he decided that he could atone for his actions at a later date - Kish grew heavy in his arms, slumping against his chest. A jolt of panic seized him until he discovered (hands searching for a pulse beneath slick flesh) that Kish had merely fallen asleep within the haze of alcohol and heavy petting.

Pie breathed a hefty sigh of relief and frustration, wrapping his arms around the lump of limp Kish in his lap and holding him close. The light snoring sound he usually emitted was absent, although he did automatically snuggle into the source of warmth beneath him. No longer concerned with crossing the line, he laid a soft kiss on his brow, committing the sensation to memory; tomorrow Kish would wake up, with a crippling headache, and things would either be awkward between them for awhile or he would play it off in his usual flirtatious manner (_"Hey there, Ichigo...") _and Pie would roll his eyes and all would be forgotten and forgiven, but perhaps not, because Pie had heard that broken note in Kish's voice, and felt the need for something, anything to temporarily fill the gaping wound Ichigo's withdrawn interest had left within him. That something happened to be Pie, but he was okay with it.

He would tell himself that, over and over, until the pain ceased. He had a feeling they would both come away from that day with scars.

But for now, with the person he loved in his arms, Pie allowed himself to dream that maybe Kish's feverish kisses, the 'I love you's choked out in a burst of honesty...he dreamed they were meant for him.

-oOo-

Kish woke up with a raging headache, as expected.

"Never again," he hissed, dragging the pillow from beneath his head and burying his face in it, shutting out the dim light.

Pillow?

In-between wincing, he considered why this was surprising to him. He recalled very little from the previous day (well, aside from what transpired in the alley, he would always remember that no matter how much he wished to simply crumple those memories and sling them into the refuse bin), and what he could remember was fragmented. Red wine, or something. Bottles. Two of them. Oh yes.

"Ugh." Kish groaned, wishing he could remember whatever happened past draining the second bottle. Around that point he'd been chattering to himself, a litany of sorrow and frustration and anger and everything else that accompanied a broken heart; he'd encountered Tart eating cereal out of the box in the kitchen and the scene was hilarious for some reason. Aside from that...how had he ended up in bed? What else had happened?

It occurred to him that at some point, he'd have to face the music about not only trashing Pie's lab and the kitchen, but stealing the alcohol and drinking it. All of it. It had certainly helped distract him but he was regretting it now.

He moved the pillow, ever so slightly, and caught sight of two glasses of water on his nightstand; beside it sat two pills and a small note in Pie's neat handwriting. 'Take these. Drink lots of water. Don't enter my lab without permission.'

Oh.

The back of his throat was sticky and tasted awful so he readily complied, gulping down both the pills and all of the water in one go. Whatever it was, it helped immediately; he still felt drugged and lethargic but the headache receded somewhat. "Thank you," Kish muttered, wondering whether the kindness was a prelude to Pie swatting him to death with one of his fans when he finally emerged from his room. If so, he didn't really mind.

Not at all. In fact, he rather welcomed it.

Kish turned on his side and returned to a thankfully dreamless sleep.

-oOo-

Pie was not crying.

That's what he told himself, seated on the bench on the park. The park was deserted, because it had been raining for hours, so the water on his cheeks was just that, rainwater. Perhaps there was a touch of saline content but that was negligible.

Really, he was fine.

The night before, he'd allowed Kish to sleep for a good hour or so in his arms before gently transferring him to his bed and tucking him in, the loving gesture not observed but also not wasted. He made sure to leave a couple of painkillers and some water on the nightstand; he would need them in the morning. Pie had never partaken of the alcohol (save for a few _experiments_ that involved a single drink for _scientific _purposes), but he'd done enough observation to understand the substance's affect on the human body - and they were far more similar to their mortal enemies than he liked to admit.

Afterwards he attended to the messes in the kitchen (including a sick and crabby Tart, who had only managed to polish off half of the third box of cereal before his small body wised up to what he was doing and issued a rather disgusting cease and desist order) and the chaos littering the floor of his lab. By the time both areas were reorganized and Tart asleep in his own bed, hopefully having learned a thing or two about gluttony, Pie was exhausted _and_ distressed, crawling beneath his sheets and attempting to force his head to _stop_ cycling over the events of the previous day. Thirty minutes of staring up at the skylight above his bed into the nothingness of space convinced him that no sleep would be forthcoming.

So he left his bed, unmade, bedclothes askew, and made his way to the section of the park he and Tart had fought with Lettuce and Pudding in prior to the events of the Tokyo Bay. He had no idea what drew him to the area; it wasn't a heavy traffic location like some of the other parts of the park, this he knew, but it wasn't as if he wouldn't be seen. Frankly, Pie didn't really care whether he was observed or not, and this lack of concern was strengthened by the fact that the few people that passed were either too occupied with their own affairs or too used to costumed heroes with animal appendages and supernatural occurrences to pay him any mind.

The fact that, save for his ears, he looked almost perfectly human did not escape his notice, but Pie chose not to focus on it.

He sat on a bench and remained there, as the sky dawned grey and began to weep, and as the hours ticked by he flipped through his memories from the past few months. Kish, Deep Blue, the slow dissolution of order in his life; Pie, he who had always prided himself on his ability to behave objectively, with no acknowledgement of his own emotions, just dedication to order and duty and procedure: he'd been brought to his knees by something he did not believe himself capable of. _"You've never been in love with anyone,"_ were those Kish's words, not too long ago? Perhaps this was true, but no longer, and he could bear witness to just how awful it could be.

Even worse was the emergence of everything else he'd buried, shame at failing Deep Blue, empathy, accursed empathy for Lettuce, pleading for Shirogane's life as he'd done for Kish. These things were hindrances to his performance, to the success of a mission he wasn't entirely sure he could support any longer because he was losing sight of who the enemy was.

And Kish, of course. It all came back to Kish, in the end, because this was his fault, entirely. Beautiful, wily Kish, who'd confessed his love for another to Pie the night before.

Pie wasn't sure when the rainwater slicking his lips gained a hint of salt, but it didn't matter, because he was _definitely_ not crying.

"Pie-san?"

The uncertain yet caring voice startled him; Pie sat bolt upright, eyes narrowed as he sought the source of it. He must have been really distracted by his own thoughts, because somehow a familiar face beneath a crown of green hair, kept dry by a large, equally green umbrella stood in front of him, her eyes full of concern (and pity), as usual. Perhaps Lettuce didn't have any other state.

Lettuce stepped forward, slowly, tilting her umbrella so that Pie was covered as well. "Pie-san, are you alright?"

Pie held her gaze for a brief moment, the possibilities shuffling in his head much like a deck of cards. He was surprised to find that none of them involved murder.

"No," he finally said, cautious and guarded, but honest, for once. "No, I'm not."


End file.
